News Release 09-152
Early Fire Use Ignites Discussion about the Evolution of Human Brainpower
Researcher talks about discovery of controlled fire use in Africa
Tools created by the experimental use of fire-treated silcrete blocks.
August 13, 2009
Watch an interview with paleoanthropologist Curtis Marean.
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
New evidence that early modern humans used fire in southern Africa in a controlled way to increase the quality and efficiency of stone tools is changing how researchers understand the evolution of human behavior, and in particular, the evolution of human brain power.
Curtis Marean and Kyle Brown, both paleoanthropologists with the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, and an international team of researchers with members from South Africa, England, Australia and France found 72,000-year-old, silcrete rocks that had been fired and flaked to make stone tools in a cave along the coast of the southern tip of Africa in Mossel Bay.
The finding indicates that humans' ability to solve complex problems may have occurred at the same time their modern genetic lineage appeared, rather than developing later as has been widely speculated.
The journal Science reports the finding in its Aug. 14 issue. The National Science Foundation supports the research.
Read more in the Arizona State University press release at http://asunews.asu.edu/20090813_ancienttoolmakers.
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Curtis Marean talks about the discovery of fired and flaked stone tools in southern Africa.
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Before and after view of silcrete rock heated with fire to make a stone tool.
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Pinnacle Point sieving area.
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Geography of Pinnacle Point, Mossel Bay along the South African coast.
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Science reports evidence that early modern humans used fire to create stone tools.
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Media Contacts
Bobbie Mixon, NSF, (703) 292-8070, email: bmixon@nsf.gov
Carol Hughes, Arizona State University, (480) 965-6375, email: carol.hughes@asu.edu
Program Contacts
Elizabeth Tran, NSF, (703) 292-5338, email: etran@nsf.gov
Principal Investigators
Curtis Marean, Arizona State University, (480) 965-2718, email: curtis.marean@asu.edu
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