Fire - as seen by millions around the globe at the lighting of the Olympic torch.

From torches in Rome to bonfires in Bulgaria and the heat of a blacksmith’s forge, fire is a universal tool that has shaped human societies for thousands of years.

Archaeologists have long known that ancient humans used naturally occurring fire more than 1,000,000 years ago.

What has remained unclear is when our ancestors first learned to create and control fire themselves, rather than relying on lightning strikes or wildfires.

That capability is considered a turning point in human evolution.

It allowed people to choose where they lived, survive colder climates, digest tougher foods and form larger social groups gathered around shared hearths.

Researchers now say new evidence from a site in Barnham in Suffolk, England pushes that breakthrough far deeper into the past.

Excavations of ancient pond sediments revealed a tightly concentrated patch of baked clay, flint hand axes that had shattered under high heat and two small fragments of iron pyrite.

The archaeological team spent four years analysing the materials to rule out natural wildfires.

Geochemical tests indicate temperatures above 700 degrees Celsius and repeated burning in the same location, pointing to a controlled hearth used on multiple occasions.

Mastering fire making may have contributed to that development by allowing a wider range of foods to be cooked, reducing toxins and making nutrients easier to absorb.

At the British Museum, the flint and pyrite pieces are now being studied alongside models of early Neanderthals to understand the behaviour and capabilities of the people who used them.

The Barnham discovery also provides a missing explanation for patterns seen at other European sites between 500,000 and 400,000 years ago, where evidence for fire use increases sharply.

Researchers say the introduction of deliberate fire making could account for that rise.

Rob Davis, Palaeolithic archaeologist at the British Museum says: “So the evidence we have at Barnham is the earliest evidence we have for fire making at 400,000 years old. The next earliest evidence for fire making is from sites in France, which dates to about 50,000 years ago. We do have evidence for humans using fire that predates that, but what really differentiates this site is the evidence for how they were actually making the fire and the fact they were making it.”

Findings of iron pyrite was crucial to the discovery.

Pyrite is not common in the local geology.

To find it at the site suggests it was brought there intentionally as part of a fire making kit.

When struck against flint, pyrite produces sparks capable of igniting tinder.

The researchers say this is the earliest clear evidence of people understanding those properties and using them deliberately.

Davis continues: “So we have this evidence for a fireplace. We have next to it archaeology artefacts made by Neanderthals. But what really makes this site extraordinary is the discovery of these two little fragments. And this is just a tiny little fragment of iron pyrite. So this is a mineral that can be used for striking, you strike it with flint and it creates sparks. So it is part of a fire lighting kit. So this is evidence that not only were Neanderthals using fire at this site, but they were also making the fire using flint and pyrite.”

The sediments and tools date to the Hoxnian Interglacial period, about 400,000 years ago, a time when early Neanderthal groups were present in northwestern Europe.

Other fossils of this age found in Britain and Spain indicate that these communities already displayed features later associated with Neanderthals, including changes in skull shape and increasing brain size.

Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum says: “The skull is relatively longer and lower, it is broader across the base, and it has a little depression in the middle at the back here, which is found in all known Neanderthal fossils. So we think this is an early Neanderthal.”

For the researchers, the implications stretch beyond the scientific timeline.

Fire was a source of warmth, safety, food preparation and social bonding.

The Barnham hearth suggests that these behaviours were already emerging in Europe 400,000 years ago.

Nick Ashton, curator at the British Museum, says: “I can honestly say this is the most exciting discovery of my long forty year career in the subject… those critical social bonds that create small societies. And the ability to take back something that we can imagine into deep time is incredibly exciting.”

The finding reopens questions about how early humans lived, learned and travelled.

It also sets a new benchmark for understanding when the controlled use of fire, which is regarded one of the most important steps in human evolution, truly began.

AP video and production by Mustakim Hasnath.