How did early humans know how to make fire?

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How did early humans know how to make fire?

In: Technology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

We don’t really know

There are evidence of “humans” using fire at least 1 million years ago, however when that changed from “using fire”, to being able to “create fire” is unknown.

There were however, isolated primitive societies that came into contact with the more modern world (modern being say 1500s-1800s) that used fire, but did not yet have the ability or knowledge to create fire themselves. Not sure if that answers your question, but more to point out that some humans figured it out, and others didn’t.

Anonymous 0 Comments

We didn’t for quite awhile. People took the Olympic Torch method with it and just kept one burning constantly. Our relationship with fire was probably fairly quick to understand that if you can find a fire you can bring one back with you. Us actually understanding how to supply the ignition source was probably an accident. The fuel is easy to see. Oxygen we had an abundance of, but the ignition source would’ve been a mystery outside of lightning or lava, etc. Us understanding how to create an ignition probably happened when someone dropped a flint stone and saw the sparks. Maybe even luckier the flint dropped against a sharp rock and the sparks hit dry grass. Someone familiar with fire characteristics of smoke would’ve seen this and immediately thought of a fire more than likely. Wouldn’t take long to start experimenting with that flint rock until they made it work. Pretty much what we do now.