Bright sparks: Neanderthal man knew how to make fire, scientists say

Neanderthal man knew how to make a fire by striking stone to create sparks, researchers said Thursday after analysing several tools found at sites in France dating from 50,000 years ago.

It was already known that Neanderthals used fire but it was mostly thought to have occurred by natural causes such as lightning or volcanic eruptions, although perhaps they did know techniques for creating a flame.

The latter is what scientists of a study published in Scientific Reports have claimed.

“We present here the first direct artefactual evidence for regular, systematic fire production by Neanderthals,” they wrote in the study.

“We found the lighters that Neanderthal man used to make a fire,” said Marie Soressi, professor of prehistory at Leiden University in the Netherlands and co-author of the study.

The researchers found dozens of flint with traces on the two faces of the prehistoric stone tool, or biface. They appear to indicate that the tool could have been used to strike at a ferrous mineral such as pyrite or marcasite.