Sheryl

Now, why would I take your word for it or even Eton Boyd's since there
are differing opinions among paleoanthropologists. In a book title
"Extinct Humans" the authors state use of fire over a million years ago
in Africa remain controversial and even some classic examples such as
Zhoukoudian and Terra Amata circa 400K years ago have been challenged as
of late. They also state and I am quoting "It is only within - well
within - the time span of Neanderthals that domesticated fire became a
regular - and even then, far from inevitable - feature of hominid living
sites." Also, there is a reason why homo habilis and home erectus are
named differently than homo sapiens because they are different species.
They were not physiologically modern humans. There are large differences
in skulls, teeth, brows, nasal cavities and such among the specimens
found dated 1.8 to 1.5 mya never mind how different they are from homo
sapiens. This is the tip of the iceberg, Sheryl. If you want to believe
in the fairy tale you are spouting, be my guest but on this list the
only thing that counts is evidence.

Mark




The very detailed description of what constitutes a physiologically
modern
human was in Eton Boyd's "The Paleolithic Prescription".  Typing all
that in
would take time.  I'll have to ask you to either take my word for it, or
buy
the book.  Personally, I'd recommend buying the book.  It's fascinating
reading.  As Loren Cordain says on the paleodiet list, he doesn't take
the
"plunge" so to speak in his dietary recommendations because of pressure
from
his co-authors, but he builds the argument beautifully.  And the
anthropological info is very detailed.

Re the fire thing... I read that on the Web.  I looked through my
bookmarks
and I can't find the references--perhaps I didn't bookmark them.  I did
a
quick search on google.com on "first use of fire" and the very first
reference came up with this quote: "The first use of fire is generally
associated with Homo erectus, who are thought to have begun using fires
approximately 1,5 million years ago."  If you search on this phrase (use
quotes), you'll find the same thing I did.  That's not the site where I
originally read it through.  Please do a little research on your own.
You
will surely find it.

     - Sheryl