Nature Study Claims Earliest Controlled Fire 400,000 Years Ago at Barnham

Overview

• Researchers report heated sediments, fire-damaged handaxes and two rare iron pyrite fragments consistent with deliberate ignition at the Suffolk site.
• The team argues the pyrite, uncommon locally, was likely brought to generate sparks, with nearby tools possibly used to process it.
• Barnham drew renewed focus after a 2021 detection of heat-altered deposits, culminating in a four-year investigation now published in Nature.
• If validated, the finding would shift the earliest strong evidence for controlled fire from a roughly 50,000-year-old French site to about 400,000 years ago.
• The authors tentatively link the behavior to Neanderthals based on regional fossils, as outside specialists praise the work’s potential and call for broader scrutiny.