Democracy Dies in Darkness
Ancient human relative used fire, surprising discoveries suggest
Charcoal and burned bones found in a South African cave offer intriguing — if controversial — clues about Homo naledi
8 min
Explorers wriggling through cramped, pitch-black caves in South Africa claim to have discovered evidence that a human relative with a brain only one-third the size of ours used fire for light and cooking a few hundred thousand years ago. The unpublished findings — which add new wrinkles to the story of human evolution — have been met with both excitement and skepticism.
