It’s been said that Neanderthals lacked the skill to make fires, leaving them to rely upon blazes that were already burning, but recently-discovered evidence suggests otherwise.



It's long been said that Neanderthals lacked the skill to make fires, leaving them to rely upon blazes that were already burning, but recently-discovered evidence suggests otherwise.  According to Leiden University: "Neanderthals were able to make fire on a large scale with the aid of pyrite and hand-axes. This means they could decide when and where they wanted fire and were not dependent on natural fire, as was thought earlier." Evidence of their command of the skill exists in "very specific microscopic wear on flint hand-axes" that once belonged to them. Andrew Sorensen, one of the archaeologists involved in the discovery, stated: 'I recognized this type of wear from my earlier experimental work. These are the traces you get if you try to generate sparks by striking a piece of flint against a piece of pyrite." "It shows Neanderthals possessed similar technological capabilities to modern humans, even though they sometimes behaved differently," he further commented.