From “Evidence That Human Ancestors Used Fire One Million Years Ago” (ScienceDaily, Apr. 2, 2012), we learn,
An international team led by the University of Toronto and Hebrew University has identified the earliest known evidence of the use of fire by human ancestors. Microscopic traces of wood ash, alongside animal bones and stone tools, were found in a layer dated to one million years ago at the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa.
“The analysis pushes the timing for the human use of fire back by 300,000 years, suggesting that human ancestors as early as Homo erectus may have begun using fire as part of their way of life,” said U of T anthropologist Michael Chazan, co-director of the project and director of U of T’s Archaeology Centre.
Chazan suggests,
Socializing around a camp fire might actually be an essential aspect of what makes us human.
Hmm. An odd way of putting it. Another way is, being human enables us to build a campfire to socialize around.