Fire is undoubtedly an important part of human civilization, and was essential to our survival since there were humans. Most of the hypotheses for how we learned to use fire are unsatisfying though, and tend to revolve around us accidentally figuring out how to use it. Those hypotheses work pretty well with the lack of obvious evidence for fire use, namely fire pits or hearths, until more sedentary lifestyles set in.
But according to a new study by researchers at the University of Utah, humans might have been using fire for a lot longer, even before we were humans proper. A number of aspects of our biology, like the size of our teeth, seem to have evolved thanks to the use of fire, which made it easier to chew some foods, for example. Those developments far predate documented use of fire.
These facts, coupled with anecdotal evidence of other great apes benefiting from foraging following natural fires, led them to hypothesize that human ancestors started making use of fire much earlier, around two or three million years ago, as the African environment grew drier and natural fires became more common.
They argue that these ancestors would have benefited from fires making it easier to forage and to track prey, as well as the benefits of cooking food. These fires weren’t always accidental though, and it is possible that our ancestors burned areas down for these benefits, which wouldn’t leave evidence like hearths. Throughout nature, both plants and animals have evolved ways to benefit from fire, and it stands to reason that humans would do the same.
Controlling fire in this way would also make it easier to forage and to travel farther, allowing us to spread out across the world while our closest relatives, the other great apes, were stuck living in places with abundant food to feed their young.