Flint and Fire
During the excavation of the "Renzi Cave" in Fanchang, the archaeological team made continuous progress and received a steady stream of good news.
At 4:30 PM on October 23, 1998, another piece of astonishing news broke: archaeologists discovered a piece of flint at the excavation site, possibly used by ancient humans between 2.2 and 2.56 million years ago.
Flint, a siliceous rock, has a dense structure, a hard texture, and is mostly gray or black in color. When broken, it has a shell-like fracture and is very sharp.
According to experts, the flint excavated from the "Renzi Cave" in Fanchang consists of small, layered flakes of flint. The flint bears traces of artificial impact, suggesting that it was made by ancient humans.
Flint produces sparks when struck together, so ancient humans used it as a tool for making fire.
While small flint flakes unearthed from the Renzi Cave in Fanchang may not have been used to make fire, they also provide evidence that ancient humans in the area had long mastered the art of making fire.
Humanity's understanding, use, and mastery of fire marked the first practical application of understanding nature and harnessing it to improve production and life.
Human use of fire dates back to a very long time ago, as early as the Yuanmou Man era, approximately 2.5 to 1.7 million years ago. Initially, fire was used to keep warm, repel insects, illuminate caves, and grill food, as well as to preserve and use food. This marked the first time humans acquired the ability to control nature and began new creations.
The invention of pottery technology is the result of humans harnessing fire after understanding its properties and effects.
Archaeologists have discovered in the remains of houses in primitive tribal settlements that some of the ground had been flattened and then burned. Fire can make the ground hard and relatively dry. This may be related to ancient humans' discovery that the ground beneath a fire becomes solid, leading them to use fire to treat the ground in their houses. This is also one of the earliest aspects of humanity's understanding of the properties and changes of clay.
The creation of pottery began with humanity's understanding of clay's plasticity. Objects made from clay possess a certain strength after drying, but are susceptible to water damage, making them weak and inconvenient to use. Through repeated practice, humans gradually realized that fire can transform the properties of clay. After being heated at a certain temperature, clay becomes a new material, becoming extremely hard and resistant to water damage. Thus, through continuous practice, humans invented pottery making.
Let's move our mouse again to the prosperous "Renzi Cave," and to the distant Paleolithic Age.
At that time, humans were still in a state of chaos and ignorance, using only crude stone tools to hunt for necessities. At that time, humans ate raw animal meat and raw plant roots, stems, and leaves, wore animal skins or woven plant garments (what we now call grass skirts), and used stones as weapons to ward off wild beasts.
Due to the burning of phosphorus in animal and human carcasses, exposed coal spontaneously combusted due to surface pressure, and trees exposed to the sun's heat in extremely dry conditions, forest fires erupted. Blazing flames were often seen. At that time, humans were unfamiliar with fire and viewed it as a monster and an ominous sign.
It is conceivable that the Eurasian ancestors living in the prosperous "Renzidong" area, after long years of observation and experience, finally discovered the wonderful uses of fire. They found that when they encountered cold, they would feel comfortable if they stayed close to a fire or gathered in the sunlight; eating animal meat cooked by fire had less unpleasant fishy smell than eating raw meat, and tasted very good, making the stomach feel comfortable. Therefore, the Eurasian human ancestors living in the prosperous "Renzidong" area put the captured animals or picked plant roots on the fire, roasted them and then ate them, overcoming the habit of eating raw food.
Thanks to the use of fire, the Eurasian human ancestors in the "Renzidong" area of Fanchang learned to harness and conquer nature, greatly enriching the nutritional value of food. This led to further development of the body's organic structure, a complex brain structure, and the full development of their intelligence.
After leaving behind their "raw food and blood" lifestyle, the Eurasian ancestors of the "Renzidong" area in Fanchang began to become more intelligent. They discovered that the soil beneath the ashes of fires, whether burned by wildfires or cooked with artificial fires, was incredibly hard. They managed to break off a piece, and when they held it in their hands, it was as hard as a hand-polished "stone knife" or "stone axe." They used it to hold food and water, preventing leaks and spills, making it incredibly convenient.
After tens of thousands of years of evolution and continuous improvement in fire-handling technology, the people of the "Renzidong" area began to learn how to use fire to make pottery, marking the rise of pottery, and also the use of fire to smelt metals.
Thus, the area became known as the ancient bronze smelting site of "Dagong Mountain";
and the "Gan Jiang Sword Refining" site of "Chizhu Mountain";
and the discovery of millennia-old potters and pottery at "Wanniudun";
and the unveiling of the mysterious "China Fanchang Kiln"...
