Until now, the use of controlled fires for cooking, in Europe, was thought to have begun around 200,000 years ago. However, scientists in Spain have discovered a set of small prehistoric fire pits or...
Beltane and Walpurgis Night are festivities with deep histories that occur in the springtime, and the two are being celebrated in various European lands this weekend. With fire being a main feature...
As the Great Fire of London swept through the city in 1666, destroying over 13,000 houses in its wake, the now-famed diarist Samuel Pepys was on a mission. On the third day of the fire, while London...
Ground-breaking new evidence has emerged from South Africa that suggests that Homo sapiens may not have been the first species to use controlled fire. Fossil remains of Homo naledi were discovered in...
Researchers in Israel have found evidence of cooking fish dated to roughly 780,000 years ago. This pushes back the beginnings of humans being able to control fire and cook their food over 600,000...
A shocking case of possible arson, still officially being called a forest fire, has caused irreparable damage to the ancient moai statues on Easter Island. The iconic towering stone heads and other...
Throughout human history, animals have been effectively domesticated and used as an extension of the territorial desires of human beings. While dogs and cattle became effective elements in the...
If you’ve ever seen firewalking in person or online, you may have been amazed by the control and skill of individuals performing such a risky act. Since ancient times, the ability to walk barefoot...
There is no smoke without a fire, or so they say, and a group of scientists are applying this thinking to develop new methods to seek out when and where the earliest fire use was. And they have come...
Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire, England, was attacked by arsonists on Friday evening. The 12th century center of learning would have been entirely lost, if it were not for the brave actions of “heroic...
Fire is only produced when certain materials – a combustible material, an oxidizer, and a source of heat – are present in the right proportions. The absence of one or more of these elements would...
In last week’s top stories, we had a shock revelation that the Hopewell culture collapsed after a comet strike, prehistoric cave dwellers were unbelievably clever about where they placed their fires...
An enlightening new study conducted by prehistoric archaeologists from Tel Aviv University in Israel has revealed how early humans cave dwellers who lived 150,000 to 170,000 years ago managed the...
The Ateshgah Baku fire temple, located in the capital of Azerbaijan, was built over a natural gas vent, and constructed between the late 17th and early 18th centuries AD. There is evidence, however,...
Fascinating scientific experiments at Isuntza 1 Cave in the Basque region of Spain have attempted to replicate Paleolithic lighting conditions. The work is inspired by a desire to understand and...
Overnight, 5,000 years of design skills that were invested in a recreated Iron Age house at the Scottish Crannog Centre in Perthshire, Scotland, have been engulfed in a fire. One onlooker said the...