The following is from the French magazine "Pour la Science", special
issue Jan. 1999, p.89. Translation by J. L. Tu.

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The oldest traces of fire

By Ramiro Javier March and Jean-Claude Monnier

The mastery of fire is a fundamental technical advancement. Alas, that
progess of humankind is difficult to date. Without any global study of
combustion structures and of its characteristics, that problem may
never be solved: it is something to prove that there are traces of
fire, more precisely thermo-alterations, on archeological remains,
quite another to prove that these traces result from human activity.

After datations, any rigorous analysis of data related to the use of
fire should include three stages. First, one should prove that the
analyzed elements have been thermo-altered, i.e. that their elementary
composition or their molecular structure have been modified under the
effect of heat. Secondly, one should define the presumed human
activity (type, operating mode, function of the hearth). Thirdly, it
remains to be proved that these elements have been altered by that
human action and not by natural phenomena. These three stages are far
from being fulfilled on most of the sites that show traces of fire.

The recent techniques of analysis (physico-chemical for the most part)
have put to test the oldest remains of burnt objects and combustion
residues, including in formerly indisputed sites, like the Zhoukoudian
cave, in China. New experimental approaches, and studies of
different types of natural fires are opening new gates of
research. One now attempts to identify unambiguously known human
activities by reproducing them experimentally.

_Breton Fire_

That method is applied in France, in particular since the discovery of
new combustion remains in Brittany, of which Menez-Drégan 1 at
Plouhinec (Finistère) [translator's note: "Finistère" is the
Westernmost part of Brittany, France] is one of the oldest (450,000
years ago). In that cave, we have detected the presence of combustion
structures characteristic of fires maintained by humans, in layers 9,
7, 5 of the site. In layer 9, a rubefied zone [translator's note: the
French word was "rubéfié", but I don't know what it means and it is
not in my dictionary] seems to be an ancient, "basin"-like hearth; its
age may be close to 450,000 years. In layer 7, we have put in evidence
a reddened, sandy lens, associated with a rubefied block which is no
doubt a hearth. At the base of layer 5, we discovered a better "built"
hearth (or better preserved), associating heated peebles and an
important concentration of coaly matter; its age is estimated at
380,000 years. There three structures have besides yielded an
abundance of carbonized wood and bone debris, as well as heated silex
and stones. Organic chemistry has detected the rpesence of
well-localized organic molecules, produced in pyrolysis phenomena.

Once they include the abovementioned requirements, analyses question
the presence of controlled fire in most of the sites older than
400,000 years and attributed to _Homo Erectus_ or to its predecessors:
Swartkans, Koobi Fora and Chesowanja in Kenya, all three about 1.5
million years ago, or at Gadeb, Acheulean site in Ethiopia. One is
starting to have doubts about sites dated from early and
mid-Pleistocene and older than 200,000 years, like Verstesszöllös,
Zhoukoudian or Torralba and Ambrona. Finally, only fire traces of the
end of the mid-Pleistocene (200,000 years ago) seem genuine.

Thus, the first proved uses of fire are dated 450,000 years before
present, but that use might have become general only 200,000 years
later.

Like in any historical analysis, one reconstitutes human behaviors
related to the use of fire from the few fragmented pieces of evidence
that humans have left us. The recent methods clarify the
nature of that human adventure and are renewing our questions about
the beginning of humankind.

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--Jean-Louis Tu <[log in to unmask]>