Study reveals ancient Europeans' chilly lifestyle
Early humans moved into northern latitudes hundreds of thousands of years before they learnt to control fire, new research reveals. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), also demonstrates that Neanderthals were far more adept at controlling fire than was previously believed. Early humans first arrived in northern Europe some 800,000 years ago. Archaeologists have long assumed that migrating to these chillier climes would not have been possible without the ability to control fire. In this study, Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University in the Netherlands and Paola Villa of the University of Colorado in the US, the Institut de Préehistoire et Géologie du Quaternaire in France and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa set out to assess the use of fire in ancient Europe. They found that while ancient humans arrived in northern Europe 800,000 years ago, they did not gain the ability to control fire for another 400,000 years or so, suggesting that fire was not essential to the colonisation of the north. This raises the question of how these people kept warm in the winter, when temperatures regularly plunged below zero. The researchers suggest that 'a highly active lifestyle and a high-protein diet may have significantly increased their basal metabolic rate as a physiological adaptation to the cold.' They also point out that although they apparently lacked the ability to control fire, early humans may have made use of naturally occurring fires caused by lightning strikes or volcanoes, for example. 'It is difficult to imagine these people occupying very cold climates without fire, yet this seems to be the case,' commented Professor Roebroeks. 'This confirms a suspicion we had that went against the opinions of most scientists, who believed it was impossible for humans to penetrate into cold, temperate regions without fire,' added Dr Villa. The study's second major finding concerns Neanderthals, who evolved in Europe between 400,000 and 500,000 years ago and went extinct 30,000 years ago. Some researchers have suggested that Neanderthals died out due to their poor cognitive abilities. Many believed that Neanderthals did not have continuous use of fire. This study overturns that idea, as the researchers discovered a wealth of evidence of continuous fire use by Neanderthals dating back 400,000 years. 'We were not expecting to find a record of so many Neanderthal sites exhibiting such good evidence of the sustained use of fire over time,' said Dr Villa. The earliest evidence of regular fire control by Neanderthals comes from Beeches Pit in the UK, where archaeologists have found heated flint, evidence of burned bones and pockets of heated sediments. Another early site is Schöningen in Germany, where the evidence consists of heated flints and charred wood as well as the possible remains of a hearth. According to the team, Neanderthals were even able to make their own glues to fit wood shafts on stone tools, for example. The glue in question, pitch, is made by burning birch bark in the absence of air. The researchers conclude that Neanderthals must have dug holes in the ground, filled them with birch bark peelings and set fire to them before covering them over to prevent air from getting in. 'This means Neanderthals were not only able to use naturally occurring adhesive gums as part of their daily lives, they were actually able to manufacture their own,' said Dr Villa. 'For those who say Neanderthals did not have elevated mental capacities, I think this is good evidence to the contrary.'For more information, please visit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS):http://www.pnas.orgUniversity of Colorado Boulder:http://www.colorado.edu/
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France, Netherlands, United States, South Africa