Did the species homo habilis have knowledge of fire?

Question

Did the species homo habilis have knowledge of fire?

Answer 1

Since fires  are natural, they obviously knew about it but the first created fire is generally attributed to H. erectus and the later ones at that.  I doubt that H. Habilis used fire and if he did, we don't have any evidence that I know of.  Our evidence is pretty sparse.  To ascertain whether they used fire would be nearly impossible.

Answer 2

The America-on-line info is interesting indeed as to its reference to evidence of Homo habilis' use of fire. If this were true, that should be supplemented with reliable sources to back up the claim;/ unfortunately that does not seem to be the case. Not barring the possibility of Homo habilis' knowledge of the existence of fire OR its accidental use, the first knowledge of fire-making skills is first evidenced in Homo erectus. See article from which the following is excerpted.

"Evidence

East Africa

The earliest evidence of human usage of fire comes from various archaeological sites in East Africa, such as Chesowanja near Lake Baringo, Koobi Fora, and Olorgesailie in Kenya. The evidence at Chesowanja consists of red clay shards dated to be 1.42 Ma BP. Reheating on the shards found at the site show that the clay must have been heated to 400°C to harden.

At Koobi Fora, sites FxJjzoE and FxJj50 show evidence of control of fire by Homo erectus at 1.5 Ma BP, with the reddening of sediment that can only come from heating at 200—400°C.[2]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_...

Answer 3

Well, the oldest evidence for a campfire is about 1.5 million years old.

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

And this is a little while after Homo Erectus showed up. So possibly, but there's no proof.

It would probably have been preserved from forest fires. At least two modern human communities didn't know how to make fire  until Europeans showed up.

Answer 4

Homo habilis was given the name homo because chipped rock has been found with remains and the old definition of human was a tool user. Now, you can get fire by hitting rocks together and these guys were hitting rocks together. I suppose you have to have proof such as ash remains. Anyway, what I have read they are not given credit as having this ability.

Answer 5

Scientists are pretty sure that homo habilis built campfires. But they did not know how to make fire.

Since they did not have fire-making skills, they had to wait until they found something burning from natural causes, set aflame, for example, from a lightening strike. A campfire had to be carefully watched, because if the fire went out, they did not know how to start it again.

Answer 6

Homo erectus should get the credit. He used fire some 300,000 years ago.

This doesn't mean he was able to make fire. No doubt fire was obtained from natural sources and then maintained. An ember can be kept for some time. The Plains Indians has a "fire keeper" who carried moss and an ember in a buffalo horn.