Re: Earliest evidence of fire question
HARRY R. ERWIN (herwin@mason2.gmu.edu)
1 Aug 1996 15:11:24 GMT
Tom Zaranek (target@mail.orbonline.net) wrote:
: My friend (does not have email access) is looking for any information
: regarding the earliest evidence of fire by the hominid.
As I've mentioned before, Lee Talbot argues on ecological grounds for
about 3 MYr BP. He points out that almost all brushfires in East Africa
are started by man, and that the open savannah in East Africa is only kept
open by burning. Hence evidence for extensive open savannah (3 MYr BP in
East Africa) is evidence for burning and so for human use of fire. Of
course, he's an ecologist, so what does he know?
--
Harry Erwin, Internet: herwin@gmu.edu, Web Page: http://osf1.gmu.edu/~herwin
49 year old PhD student in computational neuroscience ("how bats do it" 8)
and lecturer for CS 211 (data structures and advanced C++)
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