 Parzival  | 12 Dec 2025 10:29 a.m. PST |
This is an amazing find, that alters our understanding of prehistoric humans and the origins of modern man! link |
| 14Bore | 12 Dec 2025 11:12 a.m. PST |
How do you think they made hamburgers otherwise? |
 John the OFM | 12 Dec 2025 11:35 a.m. PST |
How about cheese, onions and buns? 🤔 Seriously though…
It's impossible to be dogmatic about what "primitive man" first had. Cellphones might be a stretch. But then, who's to say that WE aren't "primitive man"? |
| nnascati | 12 Dec 2025 11:46 a.m. PST |
Never ceases to amaze me. We are discovering more and more. |
| Parzival | 12 Dec 2025 12:28 p.m. PST |
Note that this is distinct from "finding" fire (as from a lightning strike) and preserving it by continuously adding fuel. It's actually making the fire from sparking stones (pyrite against flint— essentially the effect of flint and steel). That's a high level of ingenuity, which had to have stemmed from casual observation of the two "stones" coming sharply into contact. Heck, I'm not even sure how that happens without deliberate human action. Pyrite and flint don't just "happen to hit each other."
And then the human has to realize that the sparks from the stones is the same as sparks from a found fire… or that the sparks also just happen to land in dry material, which starts burning.
That's a lot of "just happen" going on! Clearly that's what did happen, but wow— that was a real genius among Neanderthals to put it all together and think "I could do this myself whenever I want…" |
| 79thPA | 12 Dec 2025 12:35 p.m. PST |
Probably accidentally discovered while trying to knap flint or make tools/weapons. |
 Herkybird | 12 Dec 2025 2:14 p.m. PST |
One piece of evidence is not conclusive, there were several hominid groups at the time, all it proves is that Neanderthals had mastery of fire at that time, in that place. Its uncertain how much contact there was between them and other hominid types. Its significant that this evidence predates other evidence of fire usage. |
| Stryderg | 12 Dec 2025 2:38 p.m. PST |
We'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent lifeforms everywhere and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys. |
| Zephyr1 | 12 Dec 2025 3:15 p.m. PST |
Neanderthal to modern humans (who thought ancient humans were too stupid to make fire) : " you! I made fire to keep warm!" ;-) |
 ochoin | 12 Dec 2025 4:00 p.m. PST |
" Its uncertain how much contact there was between them and other hominid types." Well, they interbred like rabbits so I'm guessing quite a lot of contact. The mid to later Pleistocene might have had several types of Homo in existence at the same time. One of the interesting ones has no name, no physical presence & nothing known about except its DNA contribution to Denisovans (about 4% of the genome). This "Super Archaic" ancestor broke from the lineage before Heidelbergensis (about 1million years ago) but evidently interbred with Denisovans up to 20-30 000 years ago. Homo Erectus? Something else? BTW there are traces of other "Ghost" lineages in the human genome. We know a lot. We don't know a lot more. |
| John the OFM | 12 Dec 2025 5:29 p.m. PST |
I love being called "homo erectus". At my age. 🙄
I can ignore the snickers about the first word… |
| ochoin | 12 Dec 2025 8:29 p.m. PST |
John, if someone labelled you 'Homo Erectus' they're not paying you any tributes.
link Even if they give you a chocolate bar. auction |
discovers a lost dinosaur.
