Using fire is not making fire
Capturing a wildfire and keeping it alive is a very different problem from starting one at will.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 726 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 300 thousand years
- Era
- Early Pleistocene, Quaternary
The scattered early evidence — Koobi Fora at 1.5 million years, Wonderwerk at 1 million, Gesher Benot Ya'aqov at around 790,000 — is best read as opportunistic capture and maintenance of natural fire rather than ignition on demand. Work published in 2025 places the earliest direct evidence of humans actually making fire far later, around 400,000 years ago. The distinction matters: a group that can only borrow fire is tethered to it, while a group that can make it can carry the capability anywhere.