Scientists in Barnham, Suffolk, England, uncovered the earliest evidence of deliberate human fire-making, dating back approximately 415,000 years.This groundbreaking discovery, detailed in Nature by a team including Nick Ashton, Rob Davis, and Chris Stringer, reveals that early Neanderthals used flint and pyrite to ignite flames, significantly pushing back the known date for controlled fire-making.The controlled use of fire profoundly impacted human evolution by enabling cooking, brain development, increased social complexity, and expansion into colder regions.