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The control of fire by early humans was a turning point in the cultural aspect of human evolution that allowed humans to cook food and obtain warmth and protection. Making fire also allowed the expansion of human activity into the dark and colder hours of the night, and provided protection from predators and insects. Evidence of widespread control of fire dates to approximately 125,000 years ago and earlier.〔 Evidence for the controlled use of fire by ''Homo erectus'' beginning some 400,000 years ago has wide scholarly support, with claims regarding earlier evidence finding increasing scientific support.〔http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/09-archaeologists-find-earliest-evidence-of-humans-cooking-with-fire〕 Claims for the earliest definitive evidence of control of fire by a member of ''Homo'' range from 0.2 to 1.7 million years ago (Mya). == Lower Paleolithic evidence == All evidence of control of fire during the Lower Paleolithic is uncertain and has at best limited scholarly support. In fact, definitive evidence of controlled use of fire is one of the factors characteristic of the transition from the Lower to the Middle Paleolithic in the period of 400,000 to 200,000 Before Present (BP). East African sites, such as Chesowanja near Lake Baringo, Koobi Fora, and Olorgesailie in Kenya, show some possible evidence that fire was utilized by early humans. At Chesowanja, archaeologists found red clay shards dated to be 1.42 Mya.〔 Reheating these shards show that the clay must have been heated to to harden. At Koobi Fora, sites FxJjzoE and FxJj50 show evidence of control of fire by ''Homo erectus'' at 1.5 Mya, with the reddening of sediment that can only come from heating at .〔 A "hearth-like depression" exists at a site in Olorgesailie, Kenya. Some microscopic charcoal was found, but it could have resulted from a natural brush fire.〔 In Gadeb, Ethiopia, fragments of welded tuff that appeared to have been burned were found in Locality 8E, but re-firing of the rocks might have occurred due to local volcanic activity.〔 These have been found amongst ''H. erectus''–produced Acheulean artifacts. In the Middle Awash River Valley, cone-shaped depressions of reddish clay were found that could have been formed by temperatures of . These features are thought to be burned tree stumps such that they would have fire away from their habitation site.〔 Burnt stones are also found in the Awash Valley, but volcanic welded tuff is also found in the area. A site at Bnot Ya'akov Bridge, Israel, has been claimed to show that ''H. erectus'' or ''H. ergaster'' made fires between 790,000 and 690,000 BP. To date this has been the most widely accepted claim, although recent reanalysis of burnt bone fragments and plant ashes from the Wonderwerk Cave have sparked claims of evidence supporting human control of fire by 1 Ma. In Xihoudu in Shanxi Province, China, there is evidence of burning by the black, gray, and grayish-green discoloration of mammalian bones found at the site. Another site in China is Yuanmou in Yunnan Province, where blackened mammal bones were found in 1985 and dated to 1.7 Ma BP.〔 At Trinil, Java, burned wood has been found in layers that carried ''H. erectus'' fossils dated from 500,000 to 830,000 BP, but the charring may have resulted from natural fires because Central Java is a volcanic region.〔 Based on the feeding time comparison between human and nonhuman primates (4.7% versus predicted 48% of daily activity), researchers have inferred that this is due to an evolutionary consequence of food processing dating back to 1.9 million years ago. This may imply control of fire as early as 1.9 million years ago by the ''Homo'' genus.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/08/17/1107806108.abstract?sid=3cb579e4-4464-4438-8271-1f1ab75971c3 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Control of fire by early humans」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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