There are three things that you can look at endlessly: how the fire burns, how the water flows, and how others work, which is what crowds of onlookers do at a fire, unable to take their eyes off what is happening. And all because fire really has a magical effect, attracting attention. It is not without reason that the power of fire has been used in various rituals at all times. For example, burning alive is one of the most painful types of execution in ancient times. And these days, the culmination of Maslenitsa is the burning of an effigy, a symbol of the passing of winter and the onset of spring.

Nowadays it won’t be difficult to get fire, strike a match and you’re done, but in ancient times, fire was worth its weight in gold, it was obtained with great difficulty, and it was much easier to maintain the fire than to start it again. And woe to those who did not follow the fire, because according to the laws of that time, only death could atone for one’s guilt. Therefore, the fire, in the form of a bonfire, was maintained for decades.

Today we can only guess about how the fire appeared. According to one version, lightning struck a tree and it caught fire, which is how people first became acquainted with fire. Then, most likely, with the help of a burning branch they learned to transfer fire over certain distances. And only then they began to make fire using a wooden sliver, into which they inserted a stick, placed moss next to it and rotated the stick between their palms until the moss began to smolder.

Later, flint and steel appeared - this is an iron plate, flint and wick; in order for the wick to begin to smolder, it was necessary to strike the plate on the flint.

Matches were invented relatively recently in the 19th century, but even today in remote places on our planet there are tribes that are still at the stage of development when fire is produced by rubbing or hitting various objects against each other.

Initially, fire was used to create smoke, with the help of which they got rid of annoying insects, and then they appreciated the benefits of food cooked on fire.

Fire is hot gases and plasma released during the combustion of combustible material, as a result chemical reaction or when current interacts high voltage and flammable material. Fire can become like best friend person and worst enemy. Recently, the so-called fire-show has become very popular. A fire show is not just entertainment, but a serious art - dangerous and exciting. Fire is used for lighting, warming, cooking, giving conventional signals, protecting against animals in wildlife etc. But it also has enormous destructive power, in the form of an uncontrolled combustion process - a fire.

In case of a sudden fire in the apartment, it is necessary to have a working fire extinguisher. If you don’t have one at hand, you need to know that there are three ways to put out a fire:

1. Remove what caught fire.

2. Stop the access of oxygen, for example, cover the fire object with a blanket.

3. Eliminate heat, lower its temperature, with water, sand or foam.

Follow the rules fire safety and remember that there is no smoke without fire!

Since ancient times, man has used fire. In some caves in Europe, Africa and other continents, people existed more than hundreds, thousands of years ago, bright that the proof is burnt bones, the so-called “evidence”, which indicate that someone made a fire in the caves. Many historians have always been interested in the question of ancient man’s use of fire. However, the most intriguing thing is how fire appeared in the caves of people, that is, how exactly they learned to use it. Many guesses have been made on this topic, from mythical and religious to purely pragmatic ones based on geographical methods.

Scientists agree on one thing: first, the first people learned to use it, and only then breed it themselves. ;The appearance of fire among people was episodic, very rare, for example, lightning striking a tree trunk or volcanic eruptions. In Zoroastrianism (the cult of fire in Iran and parts of other countries), before the advent of Islam, fire was considered alive.

Because, as in the desert, sometimes a fountain of oil came out and under high temperature caught fire, for primitive man it was nothing short of a miracle, so the cult of fire took great root in the peoples who inhabited the present-day Middle East until the Middle Ages. But how people made fire is a rather complicated question. After all, in the desert it could appear from underground, in the forests it could arise from forest fire. In most cases, until a person learned to create it himself, the fire from burning wood was constantly maintained for decades! And the loss of it, practically, meant death from cold for a tribe or group of people.

There are a lot of guesses about how exactly a person lit the first fire on his own, but in principle, it is not so important how exactly he lit it. Much more important is how a person uses fire for his needs. Primitive people began to use fire not only for cooking, but also for processing various materials. Starting with firing clay pots, continuing with smelting copper, and subsequently iron.

The most common theory is how a person noticed that copper and iron can be melted, it was the pieces of copper lying around the fire (which looked like ordinary stones) that the person noticed. Individual “stones” (which turned out to be copper) began to melt, however, when a person removed the fire from them, they solidified and took the form that was formed by him. Over time, it became unimportant for a person how the fire burns, because he himself learned to ignite it with the help of sparks from stones or flint.

Although, in different parts of our planet; they could have ignited it in different ways. The Indians living in Alaska rubbed two stones with sulfur, then simply hit them against each other, after which they threw the burning stone into dry dust and branches. In Hindustan and in what is now China, a piece of clay was beaten against a bamboo stick, and the Eskimos beat a piece of quartz against a piece of pyrite, producing a huge sheaf of sparks. Most Indians started a fire even during the time of the conquistadors, by rubbing two sticks. In any case, every civilization on the planet, sooner or later, learned to make fire; this became a kind of test of every future nation for the development of intelligence.

15.04.2017 18:29 1657

How did the fire appear?

Fire is a symbol of home, warmth and comfort. Man has been familiar with it since ancient times. But how he appeared in people’s lives is not known to many.

In stone caves located in Europe, archaeologists discovered burnt bones and coals. This find proves that primitive people who lived in these caves hundreds of thousands of years ago already knew how to light a fire.

How did they learn to make and kindle fire? After all primitive man was not as smart and developed as you and I.

Since it was in time immemorial and people did not yet know how to write down the history of their lives; we can only speculate about how the first acquaintance of ancient man with fire occurred.

It is quite possible that prehistoric people first learned how to use fire, and only then discovered ways to produce it. For example, a dry tree could catch fire during a thunderstorm when it was struck by lightning. As a result, the wood began to smolder.

An ancient man could start a fire from a burning tree and then maintain it for several years. Or, wandering in the dark among stones and bumping into them, primitive people noticed how sparks appeared when one stone hit another.

In any case, before one of them had the idea of ​​hitting two stones against each other in order to get fire, many years probably passed and not a single generation passed.

However, there is still one way to find out how primitive man learned to make fire. This can be seen if you observe how primitive people from ancient tribes, who have preserved all the traditions of their distant ancestors, do this now.

Some of them are still at the same stage of development at which their ancestors lived many thousands of years ago.

Here are some primitive ways of making fire: Indians from some tribes of Alaska, to get fire, rub two stones with sulfur and hit them against each other.

After the sulfur ignites, they throw a burning stone into dry grass or some other material, but it must also be dry, otherwise it will be impossible to get fire.

Indians North America To get fire, you usually rub two sticks put together.

In China and India, fire is made as follows: take a fragment of a broken pottery and hit it on a bamboo stick. The shell of bamboo is very hard, so it is well suited for striking sparks.

The Eskimos start a fire using the minerals quartz and pyrite, which can be easily found in the places where this northern people live.

But the residents Ancient Greece And Ancient Rome made fire in a special way. They used special lenses called "burning glass" to focus the sun's rays into one point. When the heat of the rays gathered at one point, the dry wood caught fire.

In addition, many peoples in ancient times maintained the so-called “eternal flame”.

The Mayan and Aztec Indian tribes who lived in Mexico for generations maintained a constantly burning fire. And the peoples of Greece, Egypt and Ancient Rome kept an eternal flame in their temples.

Primitive man was familiar with fire, but did not immediately learn to use it. At first, he was dominated by the instinctive fear inherent in all animals. But gradually he began to use fire for his needs, for example, to drive away animals. True, at that time he did not yet know how to make fire.

During a storm, when lightning struck dry branches or a tree, they caught fire. Then the ancient people collected burning pieces of wood. Then they had to constantly maintain the fire. For this purpose, a special person was usually allocated in the tribe, and if he could not keep track of the fire, he often faced the death penalty.

And finally, after a long period of time, people asked themselves the question of how they could make fire. Thanks to the excavations of scientists, we know how various prehistoric tribes, such as the Neanderthals, lived. Some researchers believe that it was then that man first began to receive fire.

Other, small tribes of primitive people, whose way of life is not yet sufficiently studied, lived in or near caves. Drawings were found on the walls of the caves.

Of course, in order to draw inside the caves, it was necessary to illuminate the place of the future drawing. So, the conclusion suggests itself: the artists of that period already worked by torchlight and knew fire.

About 10,000 years ago, the population of Europe was still nomadic, and much depended on successful hunting. In this case, the meat was most often eaten raw, but gradually people learned to fry it in the flame of a fire.

It probably all started with meat accidentally falling into the fire. Having tasted it, the man saw that fried meat was softer and tastier than raw meat. In addition to meat, primitive people fried fish and small birds.

Around the same time, man animated fire. Considering it a living creature that needed to be fed all the time, man worshiped fire, seeing its destructive power.

A long time ago, man tamed fire. Primitive people warmed themselves by the fire and cooked food on it. From those distant times to the present day, fire day and night serves man. Without fire, people would never be able to travel quickly on earth, travel along rivers and seas. Coal was burned in the furnaces of locomotives and steamships. The fire heated water, the steam powered steam engines. Fire also works in the engine of a car. Only here it is not coal that burns, but gasoline.

Primitive people can hardly be called homebodies: they led a wandering - nomadic - life and constantly moved around the earth in search of new food. They were rather weakly armed - only with a stick and a stone, but even with their help the ancient people managed to hunt large animals. If no animals were found, primitive people could easily be content with plant foods - berries and fruits.

Before primitive man learned with my own hands to make fire, he carefully preserved the flame given by nature: received during a lightning strike, fire, etc.

The most ancient people communicated with each other for a long time only using various sounds, however, as soon as they became able to use in separate words, their development proceeded at a rapid pace.

Sources: 900igr.net, potomy.ru, otherreferats.allbest.ru, leprime.ru, sitekid.ru

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The development of fire by ancient people became turning point in human social evolution, which allowed people to diversify protein and carbohydrate foods with the opportunity to cook them, develop their activity at night, and also protect themselves from predators.

Evidence

1.42 Ma: East Africa

The first evidence of people using fire comes from such archaeological sites ancient man East Africa, such as Chesovanya near Lake Baringo, Koobi Fora and Ologesalirie in Kenya. The evidence at Chesovanya is shards of red clay dating back about 1.42 million years. Traces of firing on these fragments indicate that they were heated to a temperature of 400 ° C to impart hardness.

In Koobi Fora, at sites FxJjzoE and FxJj50, evidence of the use of fire was found Homo erectus approximately 1.5 million years old, with red deposits that can only form at temperatures of 200-400 °C. Kiln pit-like formations have been discovered in the Olorgesailie region of Kenya. Some fines were also found charcoal, although it could also be formed from natural fire.

In Ethiopian Gabeb, in location No. 8, fragments of ignimbrite were found, which appears as a result of combustion, but overheating rock could also appear as a result of local volcanic activity. They were among the artifacts of the Acheulean culture created by H. erectus.

In the middle of the Awash River valley, conical formations with red clay were discovered, which is only possible at a temperature of 200°C. These finds suggest that the wood may have been burned in order to keep the fire away from its habitat. In addition, burnt stones were found in the Awash Valley, but volcanic rocks were also present in the area of ​​the ancient site.

790-690 thousand years ago: Middle East

In 2004, the Bnot Ya'akov Bridge site was discovered in Israel, which proves the use of fire by H. erectus or H. ergaster (working man) approximately 790-690 thousand years ago. Evidence was found in the Qesem Cave, 12 kilometers east of Tel Aviv regular use of fire approximately 382-200 thousand years ago, at the end of the Early Pleistocene, a significant amount of burnt bones and moderately heated earthen masses suggests that livestock was slaughtered and butchered near the fire.

700-200 thousand years ago: South Africa

The first indisputable evidence of human use of fire was found in Swartkrans, South Africa. Several burnt stones have been found among Acheulean tools, stone tools, and stones with human markings. The area also shows early evidence of carnivory by H. erectus. Cave of Hearths in South Africa contains charred rocks 0.2 - 0.7 million years old, as do other areas - Montagu Cave (0.058 - 0.2 million years) and Clesis River Mouse (0.12 - 0.13 million years).

The most convincing evidence was found in the area of ​​​​Kalambo Falls in Zambia - during excavations, several artifacts were discovered indicating the use of fire by people: scattered firewood, charcoal, red clay, carbonized stems of grass and plants, as well as wooden utensils, possibly subjected to firing. The age of the location, determined using radiocarbon dating, is approximately 61,000 years, and according to amino acid analysis - 110,000 years.

Fire was used to heat silcrete stones to facilitate their subsequent processing and production of tools from the Stillbay culture. The conducted studies compare this fact not only with the Stillbay site, which is about 72 thousand years old, but also with sites that can be up to 164 thousand years old.

200 thousand years ago: Europe

Numerous sites in Europe also show evidence of the use of fire by H. erectus. The oldest was discovered in the village of Verteszselos, Hungary, where evidence was found in the form of charred bones, but no charcoal. At Torralba and Ambrona, Spain, charcoal and timber are present, and Acheulean stone artifacts are 0.3 - 0.5 million years old.

At Saint-Esteve-Jeanson in France, there is evidence in the form of fire pits and reddened earth in the Escalais cave. These fire pits are about 200 thousand years old.

Far East

In Xihoudu, Shanxi Province, the discovery of black, gray and grey-green mammal bones suggests burning. Another ancient site containing blackened mammal bones has been discovered in Yuanmou, Yunnan Province, China.

At Trinil, on the island of Java, similar blackened animal bones and charcoal deposits were also found among H. erectus fossils.

China

In Zhoukoudian, China, evidence of the use of fire ranges from 500,000 to 1.5 million years ago. The use of fire at Zhoukoudian is inferred from the discovery of charred bones, burnt stone artifacts, charcoal, ash, and fire pits around H. erectus fossils in Layer 10 of Location 1. The bone remains were described as charred rather than stained with manganese. These remains also showed the presence of an infrared spectrum characteristic of oxides, and bones with turquoise shade were later reproduced in the laboratory by fire treatment of other bones found in Layer 10. At the site, a similar effect could have been the result of natural fire, as was the effect on the white, yellow and black bones. Layer 10 is ash containing silicon biological origin, aluminum, iron and potassium, but wood ash residues such as silicon compounds are absent. Against this background, it is possible that the fire pits "were formed as a result of the complete disintegration of silt and clay layers with red-brown and yellow fragments of organic matter, in places mixed with fragments of limestone and dark brown completely disintegrated silt, clay and organic matter." This ancient site does not in itself prove the production of fire in Zhoukoudian, but comparison of blackened bones with stone artifacts in recent times suggests that people used fire during the Zhoukoudian cave habitation.

Behavioral changes and evolution

Fire and the light emanating from it brought about major changes in people's behavior. Activity was no longer limited to daytime. In addition, many large animals and biting insects avoided fire and smoke. Fire also led to improved nutrition due to the ability to cook protein foods.

Richard Wrongham of Harvard University argues that cooking plant foods may have caused the brain to develop faster during evolution, as the polysaccharides in starchy foods became more digestible and, as a result, allowed the body to absorb more calories.

Diet changes

Stahl believed that since substances such as cellulose and starch, which are the largest quantities Found in stems, roots, leaves and tubers, and difficult to digest, these plant organs could not have been a major part of the human diet before the use of fire