New archaeological evidence from a site in Suffolk, England, indicates that early Neanderthals made fire around 400,000 years ago, pushing back the known timeline of human-controlled fire-making by nearly 350,000 years.
Researchers uncovered a patch of scorched earth and heat-damaged stone tools in the village of Barnham, suggesting that Neanderthals had developed the skills needed to create and repeatedly use fire long before Homo sapiens appeared outside Africa.
The findings coincide with a critical point in human evolution when brain sizes were expanding, and early humans were beginning to settle in colder northern climates, including Britain. The ability to create and control fire would have provided essential survival advantages, from warmth and protection to cooking and social interaction.
Rob Davis, a Palaeolithic archaeologist at the British Museum and one of the project leads, emphasized that fire use at this stage likely played a major role in helping humans adapt to new environments.
He explained that fire not only allowed for broader dietary options and protection from predators, but also created a foundation for early social behavior, including language development and group cohesion.
The study, published in the journal Nature, points to early Neanderthals as the fire-makers, rather than Homo sapiens. According to Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, fossil evidence from similar timeframes in Kent and Spain links the Barnham population to early Neanderthal groups, while Homo sapiens were still confined to Africa.
The investigation centered on a disused clay pit where tools were first uncovered in the early 20th century. Excavations resumed in 2013 as part of the Pathways to Ancient Britain project.
By 2014, researchers began to suspect fire use, but it was the later discovery of iron pyrite fragments that confirmed deliberate fire-making. Pyrite can spark when struck against flint, and its absence from over 33,000 local samples suggested it was transported from distant coastal areas for use as a fire-striking tool.
Nick Ashton, also from the British Museum, said the presence of pyrite shows these early Neanderthals understood how to generate fire using flint, pyrite, and tinder. Further geochemical testing revealed that the burned clay had been repeatedly heated to over 700 degrees Celsius (1,292°F), confirming multiple fire events at the same location.
Archaeologist Ségolène Vandevelde, who was not involved in the research, described the results as convincing and noted that this find sets a new benchmark for understanding early human technology.