Scientific American first published excellent article 'Quest for Clues to Humanity's First Fires' by Amber Dance in June 2017. Read it here.
"...When did humankind first put fire to work for them, using it
regularly for heat and cooking? Hlubik and other archaeologists who sift
through the long-cold ashes of fires past cannot say for sure. It probably
wasn’t as early as 2 million years ago—but it almost certainly occurred by
300,000 years ago. That leaves a big gap, with plenty to investigate...
...While calorie-rich meals might have been a main driver for the adoption of fire, there are other benefits, from warmth to protection from predators. Tending a hearth also could have made a big difference in the evolution of social skills: People would have had to cooperate to manage and feed fires, and they perhaps socialized around the flames. “When you bring fire into a habitation, I think something pretty profound happens,” says Chazan. “It’s mesmerizing.”..."
...While calorie-rich meals might have been a main driver for the adoption of fire, there are other benefits, from warmth to protection from predators. Tending a hearth also could have made a big difference in the evolution of social skills: People would have had to cooperate to manage and feed fires, and they perhaps socialized around the flames. “When you bring fire into a habitation, I think something pretty profound happens,” says Chazan. “It’s mesmerizing.”..."
It has this wonderful image.
'Homo erectus, depicted here in an artistic representation of a female apparently carrying a recent kill, lived between about 1.89 million and 143,000 years ago. '
Artist: Ryan Somma, Creative Commons
While scientists investigate that, cartoonists already know what happened in first few years AFTER the fire was invented.
Artist: David Sipress, The New Yorker , 2013
