Cave to Cathedrals: The History of Making Fire

Image Credit

Night Light

Fire lit up caves and underground passages where daylight never penetrated, so people could begin to live in these dark places. Before they discovery of fire, people could not do anything after darkness had fallen. Now, when the day’s hunting was over, they could sit and make tools by firelight. The points of spears and arrows could be charred in the fire to make them stronger.

Image Credit

Homo erectus was capable of a primitive form of speech by this time, so perhaps people sat around the fire and discussed the day’s hunting or where they would go to hunt the next day. Gathering around the fire at the end of the day may have been the start of community living.

Image Credit

A camp or cave fire also gave the people protection. Early people were under constant threat of attack from wild animals. A fire burning through the night kept animals away. They might skulk in the shadows, but they would not come into its light. Fire in a cave drove out wild animals that lived there. Forest fires could also be useful in the search for food. Terrified animals rushed out of the flames towards the hunters who were waiting for them. The fresh undergrowth that grew back after a fire provided more plant food for animals and people.

Image Credit

Making Fire

People had now learned to make use of natural fires, but it was not very convenient to wait for a forest fire every time heat or light were needed. Perhaps people noticed sparks flying when they were chipping flint tools. If a glowing spark fell on to dry grass, it could set it alight. Once people realized that they could light a fire whenever they wanted to. Archaeologists have found stones which they think were used to start fires. Lumps of flint which would not have been suitable for making tools had obviously been banged with other stones to start a fire. Striking flints together was fairly efficient, but using a flint to strike a rock containing a yellow vein of iron pyrites was eventually found to produce better sparks.

Image Credit

People may also have noticed that two dry branches brushing together in the wind sometimes cause sparks. Perhaps they decided to imitate this by rubbing sticks together. Then, they began to devise more efficient ways of creating fire. One of these was to press a round stick hard against a flat piece of wood and rotate it quickly between the palms of the hands. The bow drill was later used to turn the stick very fast and produce a flame more quickly.

Image Credit

Fireplaces and Hearths

Early people moved around, hunting and gathering plant food. They followed the same route each year, stopping at places where they knew the hunting was good. At night, they found a cave or made a shelter where they could sleep.

Image Credit

Sometimes they stayed in one camp for a few days before moving on. The earliest fires would simply have been a pile of sticks in the cave or outside the shelter.

When people began to build huts, they made permanent fireplaces. The earliest were shallow pits, sometimes surrounded by stones. Later, people built hearths with a large flat stone as the base and raised sides to hold the fire and ashes.

Image Credit

Wood was the main fuel for these fires and at first people used it for both heating and light. Gradually though, they began to make special lamps which burned oil made from animal fat. Some lamps were made from a large bone with a hollow in it. Others were cut from soft rock such as sandstone. The dish of the lamp was filled with the fat, and a wick made of moss was added. The wick burned until all the fat had been used up.

The discovery of fire made a huge difference to the lives of early people. Not only did they way of life began to change too, from their diet to the hours they slept and woke.