Journal
ANTIQUITY
Volume 90, Issue 351, Pages 571-589Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2016.91
Keywords
Early Pleistocene; Palaeolithic; Acheulean; combustion; cognitive evolution
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Funding
- Spanish project [CGL2010-19825]
- Canadian SSHRC
- SSHRC
- University of Toronto
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Control of fire was a hallmark of developing human cognition and an essential technology for the colonisation of cooler latitudes. In Europe, the earliest evidence comes from recent work at the site of Cueva Negra del Estrecho del Rio Quipar in south-eastern Spain. Charred and calcined bone and thermally altered chert were recovered from a deep, 0.8-million-year-old sedimentary deposit. A combination of analyses indicated that these had been heated to 400-600 degrees C, compatible with burning. Inspection of the sediment and hydroxyapatite also suggests combustion and degradation of the bone. The results provide new insight into Early Palaeolithic use of fire and its significance for human evolution.
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