Neanderthals beat their hand axes with a ferruginous mineral to make fire. After extensive research for traces, this is the surprising conclusion of a Leiden archaeologist. With this he found the oldest, common, tools with which fire is made.
Neanderthals could not make fire and depended on natural fire, such as lightning. As a result, they were somewhat seen as the stupid relatives of Homo sapiens, who could make their own fire. But that's not right. The traces of fires with brownstone powder made by Neanderthals were big news in 2016. The big question was just how they managed it. The answer has now been found.
Firelighters
Neanderthals in present-day southwestern France used brownstone or manganese oxide powder to make fire. Earlier research showed that this powder, mixed with highly flammable material such as the tinder fungus, lowered the ignition temperature by 100 degrees. The theory was that Neanderthals used this powder as a kind of firelighter. But that still did not answer the question of how this group of Neanderthals made sparks. Because without sparks no fire.
Andrew Sorensen, PhD student in Archeology at Leiden University, was the right man for this quest. “Ever since my master's degree I have been researching hand axes from Neanderthals. These stone axes were multifunctional and were used to chop wood, to carve everything and as a scraper when cleaning animal skins. So why not also start a fire?”
Track investigation
In his research, Sorensen specifically looked for the tools Neanderthals used to create sparks. He examined dozens of 50,000-year-old hand axes from various Neanderthal groups from France. He looked with the naked eye, under the microscope and made fire with it himself. The archaeologist made an important discovery and could no longer ignore it:the Neanderthal did indeed use his hand ax to start the fire, by brushing it with the ferrous mineral pyrite. “To get sparks, they brushed pyrite over the flat side of their hand axe. This is very smart because it kept the edges of the ax sharp.”
The traces he found on the axes, such as mineral remains and the shape of the scratches, appeared to correspond only to this action. “Under the microscope, I saw the mineral traces and scratches on the axes that occur when making fire with pyrite. I looked at all kinds of other options such as brushing the ax with other materials and making other movements like grinding:the scratches were really characteristic of ironing one way with pyrite on the hand axes."
With this, Sorensen has found the oldest, common, tools with which fire is made. “The same kind of tools were used in the same way over and over. So this is not an incident but a cultural phenomenon within this group of Neanderthals from present-day France.”
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Sorensen had previously mentioned the use of pyrite by Homo sapiens investigated:they dealt with it in a different way than the Neanderthals, according to his new research. “With a small flint in the right hand, the Sapiens hit the pyrite in the left hand to get sparks. Neanderthals did it the other way around:with the pyrite in the right hand, they stroked their hand ax in the left hand. With this method they only needed small pieces of pyrite. This clever way was unique to Neanderthals.”
Our image of the Neanderthals must be definitively adjusted, according to Sorensen. “My research says something about their cognitive skills:they use two pieces of rock that are not combustible separately from each other and turn them into fire. That requires insight.” The research also shows that Neanderthals could already plan. “They actively searched for pieces of pyrite and kept them in caves for future use. Pyrite lasts a long time:for this research I used pieces from the time of my master's studies," says the archaeologist.
Sorensen thinks pyrite was traded, just like Homo sapiens did. “Neanderthals had the knowledge and the resources to make fire whenever and wherever they wanted. They must have shared this with other Neanderthals who lived further from the mineral deposits. Pyrite was not as easy to find as, for example, flint. In France it occurs mainly in limestone.”
Efficient with wood
One of the reasons scientists thought Neanderthals couldn't make fire themselves was their absence during colder periods. There are more traces of Neanderthal fire left from warmer periods, when there was more lightning strikes. And why not light a fire in the cold when you need it? Sorensen sees this differently. “Not making a fire may have been a choice. During long periods of cold there was less vegetation, so firewood was scarce. Neanderthals would only build fire when and for as long as it was really necessary.” Then put on an extra bearskin.
Another reason for doubt is that no traces of pyrite have been found on other tools. This may be because most of the tools were only used briefly, according to Sorensen. The hand axes, on the other hand, carried Neanderthals everywhere and lasted a very long time. “But it is also possible that no traces have been found on other objects because the search was not properly carried out. In previous studies of these hand axes, the traces of the mineral had been recorded, but the scientists also did not know what its meaning was. Hopefully that will now change as a result of my research.”