Control of fire is one of the most important technological innovations within the evolution of humankind. The archaeological signal of fire use becomes very visible from around 400,000 y ago onward. Interestingly, this occurs at a geologically similar time over major parts of the Old World, in Africa, as well as in western Eurasia, and in different subpopulations of the wider hominin metapopulation. We interpret this spatiotemporal pattern as the result of cultural diffusion, and as representing the earliest clear-cut case of widespread cultural change resulting from diffusion in human evolution. This fire-use pattern is followed slightly later by a similar spatiotemporal distribution of Levallois technology, at the beginning of the African Middle Stone Age and the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic. These archaeological data, as well as studies of ancient genomes, lead us to hypothesize that at the latest by 400,000 y ago, hominin subpopulations encountered one another often enough and were sufficiently tolerant toward one another to transmit ideas and techniques over large regions within relatively short time periods. Furthermore, it is likely that the large-scale social networks necessary to transmit complicated skills were also in place. Most importantly, this suggests a form of cultural behavior significantly more similar to that of extant Homo sapiens than to our great ape relatives.

火的控制是人类进化过程中最重要的技术创新之一。从大约 400,000 年前开始，使用火的考古信号变得非常明显。有趣的是，这发生在旧世界主要地区、非洲以及欧亚大陆西部以及更广泛的人类综合种群的不同亚种群中的地质相似时间。我们将这种时空模式解释为文化传播的结果，并代表了人类进化中的传播引起的广泛文化变化的最早明确案例。在非洲中石器时代初期和欧亚中旧石器时代西部，勒瓦卢瓦技术的类似时空分布稍晚遵循这种火灾使用模式。这些考古资料，以及对古代基因组的研究，使我们假设最迟在 400,000 年前，人类亚群彼此相遇的频率足够高，并且对彼此有足够的容忍度，可以在相对较短的时间内在大范围内传播思想和技术。此外，传输复杂技能所需的大规模社交网络很可能也已经到位。最重要的是，这表明一种文化行为形式与现存的文化行为形式明显相似。很可能传播复杂技能所需的大规模社交网络也已经到位。最重要的是，这表明一种文化行为形式与现存的文化行为形式明显相似。很可能传播复杂技能所需的大规模社交网络也已经到位。最重要的是，这表明一种文化行为形式与现存的文化行为形式明显相似。智人比我们的大猿亲戚。