TIME

Discovery of Fire

By ≈ 1 million years ago

Illustration of five early humans crouched around a campfire at the mouth of a cave at night, one feeding the fire with a stick while sparks rise toward a starry sky.

Early HumanityDiscovery of Fire

Learning to control fire.

Early humans slowly learned to use and control fire. It changed survival, food and social life.

Burned material at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa is about a million years old. The earliest known hearths, in Israel, are at least 790,000 years old. Older remains are debated.

By ≈ 1 million years ago, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Early Humanity
Period
By ≈ 1 million years ago
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
Explore on TimelineBack to Collections
Background artwork

An original illustration generated for TIME with an AI image model, 2026. An artistic reconstruction of early humans gathered at a hearth. The people, clothing and setting are an interpretation, because the evidence for fire is burned material.