Early Neanderthals were probably striking sparks to make fire in England 400,000 years ago — roughly 350,000 years earlier than the previous convincing evidence, revealed by baked earth, heat-shattered handaxes and pieces of pyrite found at Barnham.

Early Neanderthals were probably striking sparks to make fire in England 400,000 years ago — roughly 350,000 years earlier than the previous convincing evidence, revealed by baked earth, heat-shattered handaxes and pieces of pyrite found at Barnham.

The decisive clue was not a flame, an ash pile or even a burned tool. It was two tiny pieces of iron pyrite, recovered beside a patch of earth that had been heated again and again roughly 400,000 years ago. At Barnham in Suffolk, eastern England, those fragments appeared alongside fire-cracked flint and heat-shattered handaxes on a buried surface once occupied by early humans. A team led by British Museum researchers argues in a Nature study tha…