Overview
- A British Museum–led team reports in Nature a recurrent hearth at Barnham, Suffolk, dated to about 400,000–415,000 years ago.
- Micromorphology, FTIR and magnetic data show localized burning above roughly 700°C, with flint handaxes fractured by intense heat.
- Two iron pyrite pieces, rare in the area, were likely transported as spark-makers, supporting intentional fire-starting rather than wildfire.
- The finding moves the earliest confirmed evidence for making fire back by around 350,000 years from a 50,000-year-old site in northern France.
- Researchers cautiously attribute the hearth to early Neanderthals and urge applying the same multi-proxy methods at other Paleolithic sites.