Is Homo Habilis the first to use fire?

Question

Is Homo Habilis the first to use fire?

Answer 1

No

Answer 2

We have no evidence that H. habilis used fire.  We have some pretty compelling evidence that H. erectus did.  Therefore, at this time, the honors go to H. erectus.

Answer 3

Homo erectus was the first to use fire as a "tool" about 1.4 million years ago. There are some scientists that want to take it back further in time or bring it more into the future but most agree it was homo erectus about 1.4 million years ago. Evidence was found in Kenya to support that claim.

Answer 4

Homo habilis was know as the handy man, but I don't think there is any hard evidence that they were the first to use fire, the neanderthalensis were the first to have any real evidence of controlled fire, but Habilis could have used fire as well, but if they did, most likely did not control it.

Answer 5

I have participated in fire research in Koobi Fora, Kenya, which currently has the oldest knwon sites of fire use. Originally Randy Bellamo did some interesting actualistic studies by conducting controlled burns to determine the temperatures in bush fires versus camp fires so that relative chemical changes in the soil upon which the fire was placed could be determined. Since bush fires quickly traverse the terrain where as a controlled fire sits in one place for a long time it was found that there were definite distinctions in how that effected the soil chemistry. The reason why this study was being done was because some apparent fire sites had been found that were dated to 1.6 mya and low and behold the chemical analysis determined that their chemical composition was that of a deliberate slow extended fire meaning that it was controlled and was having consumables added to it to keep it going for long enough to create the temperatures neccessary for the changes to occur in the chemical composition of the soil underneath. So, the species of Homo from this period at this location, Homo erectus, was controlling fire at 1.6 mya. Some similar sites have since been found during a dig that I was involved in that would further push this date back closer to 1.8mya, but the chemical data has not been published by the lead investigator so I am not sure of our results. We were also looking more precisely at what these fires could have been used for from this period.  We still do not know if cooking was taking place here because there was no evidence of charred fossil remains. If they were cooking then they were utilizing all bone remains for some other purpose or else placing them so precisely in the fires that they were completely consumed (possibly to avoid attracting scavengers to their campsites). One thing that we do know is that within these "fire pits" we were finding small stone fragments of stone that was not always present in the surrounding areas and that these stone fragments sometimes had evidence of percussive strikes commonly seen in the construction of stone tools. What this means is it appears that their stone tools were being placed into the fire and that the fire was being used to temper these stone tools so that they would be more durable in everyday use. With regard to cooking we would love to have found some petrified bones that showed evidence of charring, but nothing of this sort has yet to be found to represent the 1.6-1.8mya time frame. The earliest site where such chared bones has been found is Swartkrans Cave in S. Africa where antelope, zebra, warthog and even charred baboon bones have been found, but this site is dated with the range 1.0-1.5mya, which is a relatively large time range given that from present day this represents a 33% difference! The researchers at the S. African site also conducted actualistic studies and determined that these charred bones were indeed caused by prolonged exposure to fire and concluded that in all probability they were the result of hominids and not from natural fires. This was also assisted by the presence of cut marks to strengthen their case.  So now you have a relatively good indication not only of which Homo was the first but also what activities they were conducting at the respective fire sites.

Answer 6

Yes and they were also the first to use hand tools.

Answer 7

No , it was George.