![]() ![]() Either they were using the fire to cook or to defend themselves. Magill said, "We have found definitive evidence of things being burnt and those remains are organized into a pattern, suggesting it's humans who are making and controlling the fire. Geochemistry involves studying the chemical composition of the earth and its rocks and minerals.ĭr. Clayton Magill, an Assistant Professor at Heriot-Watt who specializes in using geochemistry to reconstruct ancient environmental conditions, led the project in collaboration with Spanish archaeologists Susana Rubio‑Jara and Joaquín Panera of Complutense University of Madrid. Using forensic chemical methods to identify molecules of incomplete burning, the research team at Heriot-Watt's School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society detected fire at Valdocarros II, an archaeological site near Madrid in Spain.ĭr. Previous evidence had suggested humans were managing fire in Europe much later than this, around 200,000 years ago. In a paper published in the journal, Scientific Reports, the scientists set out evidence that our ancestors in Europe were using fires for activities like cooking, heating and defense at least 250,000 years ago. ![]()
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