The last decade has seen a significant growth of our knowledge of the Neandertals, a
population of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers who lived in (western) Eurasia between∼ …

Humans are a puzzling species. On the one hand, we struggle to survive on our own in the
wild, often failing to overcome even basic challenges, like obtaining food, building shelters …

The uses and functions of fire in early human adaptations are commonly debated and at
times very controversial topics. It is important to recognize under what circumstances and …

The ability to control fire was a crucial turning point in human evolution, but the question
when hominins first developed this ability still remains. Here we show that …

The use of fire is central to human survival and to the processes of becoming human. The
earliest evidence for hominin use of fire dates to more than a million years ago. However …

According to current evidence, Homo sapiens was unable to survive on a diet of raw wild
foods. Because cooked diets have large physiological and behavioral consequences, a …

Processing food extensively by thermal and nonthermal techniques is a unique and
universal human practice. Food processing increases palatability and edibility and has been …

Combustion features inform archaeologists about the prehistoric use of space, subsistence
behaviors, and tempo of site visitation. Their study in the field is difficult because burned …

A major debate in prehistory revolves around the time and place of the earliest habitual use
of fire and the hominin species responsible for it. Here we present a newly discovered …

A novel account of the evolution of language and the cognitive capacities on which
language depends. In From Signal to Symbol, Ronald Planer and Kim Sterelny propose a …