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Health & Science5h 36m ago
A new study revisits Wonderwerk Cave and almost doubles the timeframe for the earliest fire found there, to about 1.8 million years ago, by identifying burned animal bones from that time.
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Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa
Who
M. Dolores Marin-Monfort of Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Liora Kolska Horwitz of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Michael Chazan of the University of Toronto and Yolanda Fernández-Jalvo of the Natural Science Museum of Madrid, and colleagues
What
A new study revisits Wonderwerk Cave and almost doubles the timeframe for the earliest fire found there, to about 1.8 million years ago, by identifying burned animal bones from that time.
When
Fri, 12 Jun 2026 23:44:00 GMT · 5h 36m ago
Where
Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa ·
Why
The team's purpose was to investigate whether bones found in the archaeological layer, Stratum 11, spanning 1.07 to 1.79 million years ago, were burned.
The Frontline Impact
How this affects you
This research significantly extends the known timeline of fire use by early humans, showing that hominins engaged with fire almost two million years ago, which suggests an earlier development of crucial behavioral adaptations than previously understood, though the exact reasons for this interaction remain unclear.
Story chain
3 events in this thread- Currently Reading5h 36m agoA new study revisits Wonderwerk Cave and almost doubles the timeframe for the earliest fire found there, to about 1.8 million years ago, by identifying burned animal bones from that time.
- Health & Science5h 36m agoA new study revisits the Wonderwerk Cave and almost doubles the timeframe for the earliest fire found there, identifying burned animal bones from about 1.8 million years ago.Open article
- Health & Science5h 36m agoA new study indicates that early humans used fire nearly two million years ago, doubling the previous timeline identified in South Africa's Wonderwerk Cave.Open article