Cited by 687Pleistocene-Era Hominins and ArchaeologyArchaeology and ancient environmental studiesArchaeological and Geological Studies

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On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe

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Roebroeks, Wil, Villa, Paola·2011·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI 10.1073/pnas.1018116108PMC PMC3069174

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Abstract

The timing of the human control of fire is a hotly debated issue, with claims for regular fire use by early hominins in Africa at ∼1.6 million y ago. These claims are not uncontested, but most archaeologists would agree that the colonization of areas outside Africa, especially of regions such as Europe where temperatures at time dropped below freezing, was indeed tied to the use of fire. Our review of the European evidence suggests that early hominins moved into northern latitudes without the habitual use of fire. It was only much later, from ∼300,000 to 400,000 y ago onward, that fire became a significant part of the hominin technological repertoire. It is also from the second half of the Middle Pleistocene onward that we can observe spectacular cases of Neandertal pyrotechnological knowledge in the production of hafting materials. The increase in the number of sites with good evidence of fire throughout the Late Pleistocene shows that European Neandertals had fire management not unlike that documented for Upper Paleolithic groups.

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“As discussed by Roebroeks & Villa (2011), there is a strong archaeological signal for the absence of fire use prior to c. 300,000–400,000 years ago in Europe.”
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“…(2010) Fire technology Fire regulation: area affected and intensity Disturbance/ predation Type of technology Home range (dispersal) Frequency of use Roebroeks and Villa (2011), Archibald, Staver, and Levin (2012) Trail formation Area, frequency, density Johnson et al. (2018) Digging in soil…”
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“…et al., 1999) and firm evidence for the use of fire as early as 790 ka has emerged from Israel (Goren-Inbar et al., 2004), while archaeological evidence from European sites suggests that habitual and controlled use of fire by hominins began between c. 400 and 200 ka (Roebroeks & Villa, 2011).”
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“However, the habitual use of fire only started approximately 400–300 ka ago (Rolland, 2004; Roebroeks and Villa, 2011; Scott and Hosfield, 2021), and the earliest indication of clothing dates only 170–120 ka ago (Toups et al., 2011; Hallett et al., 2021).”
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Authors: Roebroeks, W., & Villa, P.
Affiliations: Leiden University (NL)
University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)
ORCID: Roebroeks, Wil
Villa, Paola
Venue: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
Published: 2011-03-14
Volume: 108
Issue: 13
Pages: 5209-5214
ISSN: 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
1091-6490
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1018116108
PMC: PMC3069174
OpenAlex: W2165291892
Cited by: 687
References: 80
Citations by year: 2026: 19 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 62 · 2021: 56 · 2020: 67 · 2019: 49 · 2018: 76 · 2017: 52 · 2016: 59 · 2015: 40 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 24
FWCI: 144.72
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Locations: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Social Sciences › Archeology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology (arts and humanities) › Archaeological and Geological Studies
Keywords: fire use, Neanderthals, Middle Pleistocene, Late Pleistocene, fire management, hafting, Upper Palaeolithic, northern latitudes, European prehistory
MeSH terms: Animals, Emigration and Immigration, Europe, Biological Evolution, Fires, Fossils, Humans, Technology, Hominidae

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On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe

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