Neanderthals were able to make fire on a large scale with the aid of pyrite and hand-axes. This means they could decide when and where they wanted fire and were not dependent on natural fire, as was thought earlier. Archaeologist Andrew Sorensen has discovered the first material evidence for this.
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| Neanderthal reconstruction [Credit: Natural History Museum/Allan Henderson] |
‘Late prehistoric modern humans could make fire whenever they needed it,’ says archaeologist Andrew Sorensen. They did so by striking a piece of pyrite – a mineral that contains iron – with flint tools called strike-a-lights. But there was no evidence their more ancient relatives the Neanderthals, a long extinct prehistoric human species, used this technique as well.
The general idea was therefore that Neanderthals did not make their own fire, but were dependent on natural fires caused by lightning strikes, for instance. Sorensen: ‘They would have collected flaming sticks to light their own fires, which they kept burning at all times and were even able to take with them as they moved around.’ No mean feat, nor are you always guaranteed fire.
Microscopic wear
This idea now appears to be incorrect, at least among some younger Neanderthal groups. Sorensen has discovered that our Stone Age cousins were able to make their own fires, and that this practice was widespread.
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| Images of mineral use-wear traces on an archaeological biface from Meyrals (top) and biface BdV 2692 from Bous-des-Vergnes (bottom), both situated in the Dordogne. The white lines demarcate the zones where mineral use wear traces comparable to pyrite are present. The arrows indicates the orientation of striations [Credit: Sorensen et al. Scientific Reports, 2018] |
‘I recognised this type of wear from my earlier experimental work. These are the traces you get if you try to generate sparks by striking a piece of flint against a piece of pyrite.’ Only these hand-axes are much older than the fire making tools on which this wear has so far been found.
Making fire on a large scale
Sorensen and Claud studied dozens of hand-axes of about 50,000 years in age from various sites throughout France. They found the same distinctive wear on all of them. ‘This proves that it was not an incidental find, but that the Neanderthals could make fire on a large scale,’ says Sorensen.
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| Images of experimental wear traces at low-magnification [Credit: Sorensen et al. Scientific Reports, 2018] |
That they figured out bashing two rocks together could produce a brand new substance (fire) completely unlike the parent materials gives us new insight into the cognitive skills of Neanderthals. It shows Neandertals possessed similar technological capabilities to modern humans, even though they sometimes behaved differently.’
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| Map of southwest France with locations of sites discussed in text. Inset map includes northern France and Belgium [Credit: Sorensen et al. Scientific Reports, 2018] |
With a combination of microscopic research and experiments, Sorensen discovered that the traces of wear were specific to fire making. ‘You see percussion marks in the shape of a letter C. You also see parallel scratches, or striations, along the length of the hand-axe and mineral polish on the surface.’ He carried out various experiments to eliminate other causes of this distinctive wear. He used hand-axes to grind pigments, sharpen other tools, and for other pounding and rubbing activities using various types of stone. ‘A hand-axe was the Neanderthal Swiss Army Knife. They used them for everything. But only making fire with pyrite would have produced this exact suite of use-wear traces.’
The study is published in Scientific Reports.
Source: Leiden University [July 19, 2018]
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