Researchers of Leiden University and Technological University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands suggest that the first cultural revolution in the history of mankind occurred about 400 thousand years ago, when the ancestors of modern people began to actively breed the fire. This is reported in a press release on Eurekalert!.
The earliest evidence of the possible use of fire is not difficult, they are difficult to distinguish from natural fire residues. On the contrary, later 400 thousand years ago on many well-preserved sites of ancient sites, where archaeological excavations were conducted, traces of the intentional use of fire were found.
The widespread dissemination of certain cultural behavior can be explained in several ways: an independent appearance in several places, migration of populations or transmission of genes related to behavior. Due to the lack of widespread environmental changes, as well as genetic or fossil evidence of movements of the hominines populations during this period, scientists claim that cultural distribution is the most believable version.
The spread of the technology of stone tools occurred at the early stage of the human evolution, which corresponds to the traces of the population migration, for example, in the history of the Ashiel technology of the manual ax. At the same time, about 400 thousand years ago, the active spread of ancient technologies began, which precedes the flowering of cultures associated with the late Neanderthals and the early Homo Sapiens.