Ice age humans built sophisticated fireplaces

Fire was likely a key part of survival for ice age hunter-gatherers in what is now Europe. Yet a lack of evidence from the coldest part of the ice age has prevented scientists from saying how.

“We know that fire was widespread before and after this period, but there is little evidence from the height of the Ice Age,” William Murphree, a study co-author and geoarchaeologist at the University of Algarve in Portugal, said in a statement.

In the new study, the team analyzed three hearths unearthed at a prehistoric site in Ukraine. Through microstratigraphic analysis, micromorphology and colorimetric analysis, the scientists identified three simple, flat, wood-fired hearths. Interestingly, the analysis shows that one of these fires reached over 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius). According to the team, this proves that whoever made these fires had a more sophisticated mastery of pyrotechnics, despite the harsh environments they lived in.