Controlled Fire
(c.1,420,000 B.C.E)
Human erectus manipulated lightning.
Controlling fire was a key tool that set the human race on the route to civilisation. Lightning was undoubtedly the original cause of fire, and for many generations, this was the only way for fires to start.
Peking Man, who lived around 500,000 B.C.E., was initially thought to be the first person to use fire, but evidence found in Kenya in 1981 and South Africa in 1988 indicates that the first hominids likely used fire under controlled conditions around 1,420,000 years ago. Because it was so difficult to rekindle a fire, they were maintained alive indefinitely by being let to burn during the day and put out at night.The most common ways for prehistoric people to make fire were with flint struck upon pyrites or with friction. The first humans who were able to control fire utilised it to protect themselves from predators, cook their food, and stay warm. Additionally, it allowed them to live in areas that were previously too chilly for human settlement. They also employed it in "fire drives" to draw skulking animals or foes out into the open. In order to clear forest for roads, grazing areas, and agricultural land, regulated fire was crucial. Uncontrolled fire, on the other hand, degraded the soil's potential. The ability to control fire also made it possible for humans to smelt metals, allowing them to escape the constraints of the Stone Age.