The Earliest Fire-makers

Flying across Africa to attend the Pan-African Congress on Prehistory in Livingstone in July of last year I was frequently reminded of how characteristic of man is his continual use of fire, not only in cities but in the primitive open spaces. There were few moments in the course of the whole journey when signs of fire or artificial light were not somewhere visible. As we passed over the sparsely inhabited bush and savannah country of south-central Africa one could sometimes count up to a dozen columns of smoke rising from the landscape spread out below. Some of these were deliberate bush-fires which the native farmers start early in the dry season as a safeguard against the disastrous spread of uncontrolled fire at the end of that season when the vegetation is like tinder. At the Livingstone Congress there were several communications bearing directly or indirectly on the question of how long has man, particularly in Africa, had fire at his disposal.