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Oldest Confirmed Human Fire-Making Found at 400,000-Year-Old UK Site

Analyses with pyrite fragments indicate intentional, repeated hearth use at Barnham by likely early Neanderthals.

An artist's impression of sparks made by striking the pyrite against flint. By Craig Williams © The Trustees of the British Museum
Image
A fragment of iron pyrite was first discovered in 2017 at the site in Barnham, Suffolk.
The Earliest Evidence Of Making Fire Has Been Discovered, Dating To 400,000 Years Ago

Overview

  • Published in Nature, the British Museum–led study dates the Barnham, Suffolk hearth to roughly 400,000–415,000 years ago and documents temperatures exceeding about 700°C.
  • Two iron pyrite fragments—geologically rare at the site and likely transported—point to spark-based ignition when struck against flint, evidencing on-demand fire-making.
  • Micromorphology, FTIR, magnetic measurements and organic geochemical markers (including PAHs) converge on repeated, localized burning inconsistent with wildfire.
  • Heat-shattered flint hand axes and a small, half‑meter hearth area cluster at a single spot near a watering hole; no human fossils were recovered at the feature.
  • The result pushes back the earliest confirmed fire-making by about 350,000 years from a 50,000-year-old French site, with major implications for cooking, cold-climate survival and social life, though the authors caution Barnham need not be the place of invention.