Fire is one of the building blocks of human life. Whether for providing warmth, cooking food, casting light, or assisting in the creation of the first tools, fire has been responsible for much of the progress our ancestors made that helped modern humanity get to where we are today.
If we want to make a fire, it’s simple. Grab some wood from the corner store, set it up in your backyard fire pit, and strike a match. But how did our Ice Age ancestors do it? There actually isn’t much in the archaeological record to help answer that question.
“We know that fire was widespread before and after this period, but there is little evidence from the height of the Ice Age,” said William Murphree, a geoarchaeologist from the University of Algarve, in a press release.
Strangely, barely any well-preserved fireplaces from the coldest period of the Ice Age in Europe have been found. However, thanks to a group of scientists led by the University of Algarve and the University of Vienna, the conversation around Ice Age fire is heating up.
