文章强调受控用火是人类关键技术，可能通过提高熟食的营养提取并缩小肠道尺寸，促成大脑较大的古人类进化。它报道了来自英格兰东部巴纳姆东农场的新证据，显示约40万年前尼安德特人不是仅维持天然火源，而是人工生火。

当时地表的黏土被烧结，附近的燧石工具也表现出热变形，磁学和化学测试表明这些效应符合反复的强烈局部加热，而非一次掠过的野火。遗址的石器组合显示至少有两次占用，较晚的一次与这些用火遗迹有关。

为再现这种磁特征，研究者将未受热黏土在400–600℃下每次加热四小时，共进行12次，并发现其烃类分布具有人类火堆的特征。两块从外地带来的黄铁矿卵石在当地岩层中并不天然存在，说明人们刻意取火打火，把黄铁矿击火的直接证据从法国5万年前向前推进到40万年前，置于人类约160万年用火史的时间框架内。

The article highlights controlled fire as a key human technology, possibly enabling big-brained hominids by increasing nutrient extraction from cooked food and reducing gut size. It reports newly analysed evidence from East Farm, Barnham in eastern England, suggesting artificial fire creation rather than mere tending of naturally ignited flames about 400,000 years ago, likely by Neanderthals.

Clay at former ground level is baked and nearby flint tools are thermally altered, and magnetic and chemical tests show these effects match repeated intense local heating rather than a passing wildfire. The site’s tool assemblages indicate at least two occupations, with the younger one associated with the fire features.

To reproduce the magnetic signature, researchers heated unaltered clay for four hours on 12 occasions at 400–600°C, and found hydrocarbon patterns characteristic of human hearths. Two imported pyrite nodules, absent from local rocks, imply deliberate spark production, pushing direct evidence for pyrite-struck fires back from 50,000 years ago in France to 400,000 years ago, within a 1.6-million-year timeline of human fire use.

Source: Humans were lighting fires from scratch a lot earlier than previously thought

Subtitle: A 400,000-year-old tinderbox is found in eastern England

Dateline: 12月 11, 2025 06:42 上午