Four hundred thousand years ago, near a water hole on grasslands bordering a forest in what is now southern England, a group of Neandertals struck chunks of iron pyrite against flint to create sparks, ...

Fragments of iron pyrite, a rock that can be used with flint to make sparks, were found by a 400,000-year-old hearth in eastern Britain. (Jordan Mansfield | Courtesy Pathways to Ancient Britain ...

Set aside your matches or lighter and try to start a fire—chances are you’d be left cold and hungry. But as early as 400,000 years ago, ancient hominins may have had the skills to conjure flame, ...

Is it the case that control of fire by Neanderthals was mastered 350,000 years before the previously believed date? Evidence from new research at Barnham, Suffolk, makes that assertion very compelling ...

Scientists have discovered the oldest-known evidence of fire-making by prehistoric humans in the English county of Suffolk, a hearth apparently made by Neanderthals about 415,000 years ago, revealing ...

It's easy to take for granted that with the flick of a lighter or the turn of a furnace knob, modern humans can conjure flames — cooking food, lighting candles or warming homes. For much of our ...