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Fire-making earliest evidence found in “groundbreaking” discovery

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December 12, 2025
3 min read

Fire-making earliest evidence found in “groundbreaking” discovery

Researchers led by the British Museum have discovered the earliest known evidence of fire-making in a “groundbreaking discovery.” The field in Suffolk dates back 400,000 years or 350,000 years earlier than previously known.

The research published in Nature “provides evidence of the earliest known instance of fire-making by humans,” the Museum said. Previous recorded cases of it date back to just 50,000 years ago.

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Fire-making is thought to have been a “critical turning point in human evolution,” helping survival in harsh environments. It also coincided with the “enlargement of the brain,” and is believed to have contributed to the development of societal structures.

Sites in Africa suggest natural fire being used over a million years ago, but the discovery in Barnham finds evidence of the creation and control of fire, carrying “huge implications for human development and evolution,” according to the British Museum. The previous oldest evidence of 50,000 years ago was found in the north of France.

The evidence consists of a patch of heated clay, heat-shattered flint handaxes, and two small pieces of iron pyrite. It took the team four years to demonstrate that the heated clay was not caused by wildfire, with geochemical test showing temperatures of 700°C, and repeated fire-use in the same location at the site. This points to a possible campfire or hearth used by people on a number of occasions.

With this ability, humans “were no longer dependent on unpredictable lightning strikes and wildfires,” which take time to gather for use as a campfire and could be difficult to maintain. Fire-making “enabled humans the freedom to choose their campsites, without needing to continually feed the fire, as it could be reignited when and where required,” according to the British Museum.

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