Pull to refresh
Logo
Daily Brief
Following
Why Sign Up
Richard Wrangham

Richard Wrangham

Biological Anthropologist, Harvard University

Appears in 1 story

Stories

Ancient humans made fire on demand 400,000 years ago

New Capabilities

Proponent of cooking hypothesis for human evolution

Early humans struck pyrite against flint to spark fires in a Suffolk field 400,000 years ago—350,000 years before anyone thought possible. British Museum archaeologists found two pyrite fragments near a hearth littered with fire-cracked hand axes and sediment burned to 700°C, evidence that early Neanderthals weren't just using fire—they were making it.

Updated Jan 7