Fire is a chemical reaction in which heated material reacts with oxygen, giving off light, heat, and flames. Without human meddling, fires are typically ignited by lightning strikes or volcanic eruptions.

Fire has been an essential part of human history for hundreds of thousands of years. Early humans may have used fire already two million years ago¹, obtaining it from natural sources such as lightning strikes and volcanic eruptions. Over time, they realized its many benefits and learned how to make it. By 130,000 years ago, if not hundreds of thousands of years earlier, humans had fire largely under control², and they could generate it even from a spark.

Fire significantly improved the quality of human life. It provided early humans a dependable source of light, warmth, protection from prowling predators, and a way to cook food. Cooking is also believed to be one of the main reasons for our large brains.

Brains and intestines are both major energy consumers. Since cooking helps humans digest better, they can make do with a shorter intestinal tract – the lower energy consumption of shorter intestines releases energy for the development of larger brains.

Besides, our complex cognitive skills and language (ability to speak) are thought to be fostered by the social moments spent around a fire. Spoken words do not leave any traces, but perhaps already hundreds of thousands of years ago, early humans gathered around glowing hearths and created relationships by telling rudimentary stories to others.

Be that as it may, as time passed by, humans figured out how to utilize fire more and more. They began to burn forests to create open grasslands where the game was more easily hunted, and shrubs bearing many desirable fruits, nuts, seeds, and berries flourished. Later, fire was introduced in agriculture and craftworks (such as pottery making and metallurgy), and today, we have harnessed fire for so many different purposes that our lives may even depend on it.

¹ The oldest evidence of burnt bones and flora has been found in open-air sites, and we do not know whether these resulted from wildfires or the deliberate use of fire by humans. More signs of burnt animals, wood, grasses and other materials began to appear around a million years ago.

² Homo neanderthalensis, an intelligent and robust human species, inhabited even the northern parts of Europe (Britain) by 130,000 years ago, and they could not have survived in the cold climate without mastering fire, especially during the freezing glacial periods of the ice age.

Bibliography

Rutherford, A. 2020. The Book of Humans a Brief History of Culture, Sex, and the Evolution of Us. London, United Kingdom: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 240 p. ISBN 9781615195909. Pages 46-49, 165.

Frankopan, P. 2023. The Earth Transformed an Untold History. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing. 695 p. ISBN 9781526622563. Page 43.

Papagianni D. & Morse, M. A. 2022. The Neanderthals Rediscovered. London, United Kingdom: Thames & Hudson. 238 p. ISBN 9780500296400. Pages 30, 79-82.

Pettitt, P. 2022. Homo Sapiens Rediscovered the Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins. London, United Kingdom: Thames & Hudson. 304 p. ISBN 9780500252635. Pages 19-20.

Smil, V. 2018. Energy and Civilization: a History. Cambridge, United States. MIT Press. 552 p. ISBN 9780262536165. Page 23.

Harari, Y. N. 2015. Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind. London, United Kingdom: Vintage. 512 p. ISBN 9780099590088. Pages 13-14.

Scott, J. C. 2018. Against the Grain a Deep History of the Earliest States. New Haven, United States. Yale University Press. 312 p. ISBN 9780300240214. Pages 37-43.

Dartnell, L. 2019. Origins How the Earth Shaped Human History. London, United Kingdom: Penguin Random House. 346 p. ISBN 9781784705435. Pages 173-174.

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