HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO FIRE

This week we’re celebrating the 4,00,000 Birthday of entertainment’s first Start-Up -and we’re not sparing the candles…

Back in the Roaring Eighties I co-founded a film company named Fireside Pictures in homage to the great, great, grand-daddy of all moving image entertainment.  Sadly our hugely expensive (embossed bi-colour!) stationery and business cards, featuring tongues of orange flames licking up the lettering, failed to set the UK TV and cinema industry alight.

But the thought was there…

And that thought was re-ignited this week when I read the recent British Museum Blog:* 'Blazing a trail: the world’s oldest known fire-making.'

You see according to the latest archaeological research, fire is older than we thought. Or at least that magical iteration of the combustive element that King Louie describes as ‘man’s red fire’ when trying to persuade Mowgli to reveal the secret of Homo sapiens’ USP.  Or rather, the last-surviving patent-holders of the technology:

‘While some people (and certain Disney characters) might think that the ability to create fire is limited to our own species, the evidence from Barnham shows that fire-making technology was also used by other types of human that inhabited the world alongside our ancient ancestors.  In Europe and Western Asia, these were the Neanderthals who began to emerge at the same time as Homo sapiens, our own species, started its evolutionary journey in Africa.’

Hold on a second... “evidence from Barnum???”

I know that the Connecticut-born circus-owner and colossus of The Business of Pleasure regularly employed fire-eaters and fire-breathers, and Arthur Shaw, ‘The Norfolk Giant,’ but Neanderthals?

The 'Barnham' that the British Museum Blog refers to is the village in Suffolk where Phineas Taylor Barn-um’s surname originated (although Barnham in Sussex might dispute that). And it was there that a tiny area of red clay first raised archaeologists’ eyebrows:

‘Analysis of the clay confirmed the team's suspicions.  Changes in the mineral structure showed heating to over 700°C, while microscopic examination indicated that the sediment remained in place. Furthermore, tests suggested that this was not just one burning event, but a series of repeated burning in the same location. The conclusion was clear -this was a campfire, or hearth, that had been used by people on several occasions.

The Palaeolithic Zippo

‘Most important of all, two small fragments of pyrite were found among the burnt materials at the site.  Iron pyrite, also known as fool’s gold, is a metallic mineral which forms naturally. When used to strike flint, it can strike sparks which have the potential to light tinder and start a fire. Later research into our own geological database revealed that these pyrite fragments must have been transported to the site by Neanderthals for exactly that purpose. Sites in Northern France had evidence of late Neanderthals making fire 50,000 years ago, but this extraordinary discovery at Barnham provides proof for the use of fire-making technology around 350,000 years earlier – significantly pushing back the oldest estimates for this historic milestone in human evolution.’

But 400,000 years on and fire appears to be on the way out…

1307 King Edward I of England (aka ‘Longshanks’ played by Patrick McGoohan in Mel Gibson's Braveheart) issues a royal proclamation banning the burning of sea-coal in London, citing both public discomfort and health concerns.

1956 Parliament passed the Clean Air Act, restricting the burning of coal in urban areas and authorised local councils to set up smoke free zones …a mere four years after the Great Smog of London is believed to have killed between 4,000 and 12,000 people.

2040? The UK’s last ever internal combustion engine powered motor vehicle will probably be sold as ‘a good runner’ on the quantum-computer hosted pages of Exchange & Mart.

We cannot imagine how human society would have developed without the harnessing of fire. Or if it would have survived at all. But the benefits fire brought to our species early doors may be broader than we imagine, as one study of the Ju/’hoansi Bushman of Botswana observes:

‘Control of fire had an enormous impact on the life of our hominin ancestors. As Wrangham and Carmody have so cogently argued, the use of fire for cooking greatly increased the digestibility of food and effective provisioning of young, allowing for shorter birth intervals. Fire altered anatomy, particularly brain size and gut volume, and radically reduced chewing time. Fire protected early humans from predators and provided a new context for social interaction when food was brought to  a central site for cooking. Modified landscapes after burning and higher calorific returns from cooked foods lowered the costs of foraged foods, and thus the costs of sharing. Finally, artificial firelight altered circadian rhythms and extended the day, freeing time for social interaction that did not conflict with time for subsistence work…”

Or in the modern-day Ju/’hoansi campfire equivalent of Eastenders, The One Show and Netflix:

‘In the late afternoon, families gathered at their own fires for the evening meal. After dinner and dark, the harsher mood of the day mellowed and people who were in the mood gathered around single fires to talk, make music or dance. Some nights large groups convened other nights smaller groups. The focus of conversation changed radically as economic concerns and social gripes were put aside.  At this time 81% of lengthy conversations involving many people were devoted to stories; these stories were largely about known people and amusing, exciting, or endearing escapades. Storytellers did not praise heroes or moralize; advancing oneself in the moral hierarchy or demoting others was avoided, as was any form of self- promotion. No doubt, listeners gleaned unspoken lessons from stories. When a story was over, others rehashed details, embellished, and discussed. The language of stories tended to be rhythmic, complex and symbolic, with individuals repeating the last words of phrases or adding an affirmative “Eh he.” Frequently listeners were stunned with suspense, nearly in tears, or rolling with laughter; they arrived on a similar emotional wavelength as moods were altered.’

Which is, of course, what most of us aspire to when gathered around the trillion-seater campfire of stages and screens, arena and stadia, that make up The Business of Pleasure.

But it's even more important in The Business of Survival, as Kipling's The Jungle Book brilliantly notes:

'For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Pack is the Wolf.'

DT

6 February, 2026

*Nick Ashton, Curator: Palaeolithic Collections. Rob Davis, Project Curator: Pathways to Ancient Britain. The 'Fire, culture and society in Britain' research project.

**Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen. Polly W Wiessener, National Library of Medicine, 2014