Human Control of Fire

Harnessing fire in order to use its properties as a practical tool. Controlling fire has been a hallmark of human culture since before the existence of modern Homo sapiens. Early people obtained fire from natural sources, later developing a variety of methods to create fire artificially. The ability to create, control and use of fire remains essential to human civilization.

The first exposure that early humans had to fire most likely came from wild fires and forest fires sparked by lightning. While destructive and potentially deadly, they provided early access to the tool, although it was not a force that people could control, much less create at will. There is evidence to show that as early as 1.6 million years ago Homo erectus groups had harnessed fire to some extent, and by 4,00,000 to 2,50,000 BCE there is clear evidence that homo erectus could control and perhaps even create it. By 1,25,000 BCE, well after the emergence of modern Homo sapiens, human use, control and creation of fire were widespread and common.

Humanity's mastery of fire had an immediate and profound impact on its evolution. Fire gave people protection from wild animals. Allowed them to illuminate the darkness, gave warmth to fend off the cold, enhanced their ability to fashion tools, gave them the ability to cook food and served as as effective deterrent against insects and pets. Fire was so useful in the preparation of food that humans became the only animal that could nutritionally thrive by eating cooked but not raw food. Fire's importance in culture is so marked that the word itself became a ubiquitous metaphor used to describe ideas such as romantic love, conflict, destruction and intense desire.