Overview
- A peer‑reviewed PLOS ONE study reports hundreds of tiny burned bone fragments from Wonderwerk Cave that show chemical and luminescence signs of heating and date to roughly 1.07–1.79 million years ago.
- Researchers used a new short‑wavelength bone‑luminescence method to screen fragile fragments without destroying them and confirmed burning with FTIR spectroscopy and two independent dating techniques.
- Many burned fragments were recovered about 30 meters inside the cave and were often embedded in fossilized owl pellets, which argues that the heating occurred within the cave environment rather than from outside wildfires.
- The burned material sits in layers with Acheulean stone tools, so the team links the pattern to Homo erectus or close relatives and interprets repeated burn horizons as evidence that hominins transported or maintained embers in the shelter.
- Lead authors and outside scholars say the finding shifts the timeline for repeated sheltered fire use but stress it is not proof of fire invention and call for independent replication and direct functional evidence such as clear hearths or cooking residues.