Creating Fire ancient timelines

[falling rain]

Hello folks
I was wondering if anyone had any definate (Of course nothing is definate in ancient history) knowledge of timelines for fire creation
I'm interested in (roughly) when the ancestors first used flint & steel (not the Swedish modern steel) but the traditional old fire steel and flint 'strike a light' and even more taxing a rough idea of when the ancestors used 'bow drill' I know the flint and steel is a at least from Viking marauding times...but was it used earlier....say in the Iron age of around 500 BC
In the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford they have a 'bow drill fire set' which is from an ancient Egyptian tomb. (for the journey to the after life) but was 'bow drill employed even before 5'000 years ago?........I think it probably was and of course there was Iron Pyrites and stone. Just wondered if anyone had studied or had any wise knowledge of rough timelines for the discovery of fire.

Cheers all..........Nick

 

[Pict]

Excellent question, I've pondered this one myself. I've tried to research it here in Brazil. Here at least it seems the hand drill was the most common native method and was quickly supplanted by the flint and steel once the Portuguese got here.

 

[ex member coconino]

There's masses of info in this Wikipedia article, particularly in the references. There goes your day!

 

[falling rain]

Excellent stuff Coconino........great link and thanks very much for taking the trouble to post it. Much appreciated. Will enjoy reading that very much when I've got some time. Cheers - Nick

 

[pango]

Hi, it's been said that the "stone age" might just as rightly be referred to as the "wood age".

A mate of mine once kicked a very prettily built old fire-hearth, complete with burned logs lain teepee fashion, in the Libyan desert and broke his big toe in the process. It was fossilised! There were also a few logs logs piled near the stone they had been broken on. Mind-bogglingly ironic, don't you think?

In an age where all naturally occurring materials had a potential use, it goes without saying that all materials would have been investigated. And combined with the regular, possibly daily task of making tools/weapons from suitable rock, all likely rocks would have been tested for suitability. It would only be a matter of time before someone struck a shafted tool, flint, crystal, obsidian, granite, etc, on an iron node. The rest is history... or rather... isn't!

 

[Stanleythecat]

I have read articles suggesting flint/iron pyrites etc came before friction fire methods, at least in this part of the world. Unfortunately I have lost the link but will try to track it down.

 

[WeThePeoplexfbm]

O>o um flint and rock?


---
Skipp

 

[AussieVic]

In Australia Aboriginal people have been lighting fires for 40,000 - 60,000 years, there are many excavated camp sites which illustrate this. I guess there is no way to know for sure how these fires were lit, but hand drills ("fire sticks") were in use right up until European settlement, so I think that it is reasonable to suppose that they have been used for the preceeding millennia.

Although people all around the continent did use fire sticks, aboriginal people often carried fire with them as a smouldering fire bundle so that they would not have to light another fire from scratch. There are interesting accounts of aboriginal people having to travel great distances to visit other groups to collect fire from them when they lost their own fire. I also know that fire sticks were one of the items used in trade between groups; if you need to trade valuable resources , I guess it makes sense to keep your own fire burning as long as possible so that you don't wear out your means of making it.

Incidently, for those of you with Australian plants in your gardens you may like to try this, the female flower spikes from a Banksia were sometimes lit and used to carry fire. They are very dense and will smoulder for a couple of hours. Aboriginies would make a little basket out of paperbark or reeds, put a blob of mud in the bottom, and push the lit spike in, like a candle ! I'm sure there were other techniques too ...

 

[falling rain]

Wow!!!.....thanks folks...tres entresent!!!....Brilliant stuff. If only eh?.... we could know that moment when the ancestors discovered how to make and control fire at will!! Impossible of course.....I expect it was 'discovered' around different areas in the world at different times....but maybe it was traded for lots of stuff!!!...and all the fire enhancers and carrying fire knowledge......I'm extremely fascinated by all this.......for example who first discovered 'BOW Drill' in Europe....Blimey bet he..or she was chuffed....creating fire at will. We take everything for granted nowadays.....That must have been a FANTASTIC!!!! day for our ancestor

 

[falling rain]

I'm very lucky to be living in Woodbury in Devon and within a short walk I can go to Woodbury Castle which is a big Iron aged hill fort. There's a natural spring nearby which I suspect few people know about as it looks like a big pond in the woods but I did some research and found out it's called 'Soldiers well' and was certainly used by the inhabitants of the hill fort during the iron age 2'500 years ago or there abouts as they've found artefacts nearby in the past. The 'Castle' was also used as a station for soldiers during the Napoleonic wars and our soldiers had an en-campment there and almost certainly used the spring (well) too for their water hence the name 'Soldiers Well'. Nice place to go for a visit but I advise avoiding sundays as it's very busy with kids rampaging around the place dropping crisp packets while their parents chat and ignore them and un-trained dogs charging about too (Mr Grumpy ).........It's fascinating to think that 2'500 years ago our ancestors were there lighting fires with these ancient methods

 

[AussieVic]

I just came across this article:

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110314/full/news.2011.158.html

Suggests 400,000 years ago may be when people started to make fire in Europe. It mentions the difference between made fire and captured fire ! Neanderthals seem to have been using fire too (if you are interested in more than just home sapiens)