Overview
- A British Museum‑led team reports in Nature that a small hearth at Barnham, Suffolk, dates to roughly 400,000–415,000 years ago.
- Analyses identified heated clay exceeding about 700°C, heat‑shattered flint handaxes, and chemical and magnetic signatures consistent with fires rekindled in the same spot.
- Two iron pyrite fragments, geologically rare near Barnham, suggest people brought spark‑making material to strike against flint and light tinder.
- Researchers infer early Neanderthal fire‑makers based on contemporaneous fossils in the region, though no hominin remains were recovered at the site.
- The discovery pushes back the previously confirmed record of fire‑making by about 350,000 years and provides methods to re‑examine other Paleolithic sites.