Archaeology

Neandertals mastered fire-making tools 400,000 years ago

Human relatives struck sparks with iron pyrite and flint far earlier than previously known

An illustration shows a pair of hands striking a stone tool to make sparks that scatter into the dark background.

The first known method of producing fire (illustrated) involved striking a lump of the mineral iron pyrite against the edge of a jagged piece of flint.

Craig Williams/The Trustees of the British Museum

By Jay Bennett

Read another version of this article at Science News Explores

Four hundred thousand years ago, near a water hole on grasslands bordering a forest in what is now southern England, a group of Neandertals struck chunks of iron pyrite against flint to create sparks, lighting campfires on multiple occasions.