Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1117620109
• Publication Date: 2012-04-03T05:11:02Z
• Authors: Francesco Berna; Paul Goldberg; Liora Kolska Horwitz; James Brink; Sharon Holt; Marion Bamford; Michael Chazan
• Keywords: Acheulean; Cape; Middle Stone Age

The ability to control fire was a crucial turning point in human evolution, but the question when hominins first developed this still remains. Here we show that micromorphological and Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy (mFTIR) analyses of intact sediments at site Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa, provide unambiguous evidence—in form burned bone ashed plant remains—that burning took place cave during early Acheulean occupation, approximately 1.0 Ma. To best our knowledge, is earliest secure evidence for an archaeological context.