The use of fire and human distribution

Humans today live in a wide range of environments from the iciest to the hottest, thanks to diversecultural solutions that buffer temperature extremes. The prehistory of this relationship betweenhuman distribution, cultural solutions and temperature conditions may help us to understand theevolution of human biological adaptations to cold temperature. Fire has long been seen as animportant factor in human evolution and range expansion, particularly into temperate latitudes.Nevertheless, the earliest evidence for hominin presence in Eurasia, and middle latitudes innorthern Europe, substantially predates convincing evidence for fire use in these regions. Thisreview outlines the current state of knowledge of the chronology of hominin dispersal intotemperate latitudes, from the earliest occupants to our own species, and the archeological evidencefor fire use. Given continuing disagreement about this chronology and limitations to thearcheological evidence, new, complementary approaches are worthwhile and would benefit frominformation from studies of current human temperature regulation.Human Origin