Stone Age humans would have controlled fire in varying ways, the researchers say - not only to travel through caves but also to make and view art. The team shared what it learned June 16 in PLOS ONE. Medina-Alcaide et al/ PLOS ONE 2021Įach light source comes with its own quirks that make it well suited to specific cave spaces and tasks. This is ideal for staying in one spot in a cave. The lamp (shown at various stages of burning, left) offers a steady, smokeless light source that can last for more than an hour. They also measured how far away these light sources could be and still illuminate the walls.Ī researcher (right) lights a stone lamp made with animal fat. The team measured flame intensity and duration. Fueling their light sources were juniper branches, animal fat and other materials that Stone Age humans would have had at hand. There, they tested torches, stone lamps and fireplaces (nooks in cave walls). The researchers trekked into the wide chambers and narrow passageways of Isuntza I Cave.

And they’d like to know why those long-ago humans created art there. They want to understand how and why humans journeyed underground.

He and his colleagues have begun wielding fiery tools in dark, damp and often cramped caves. Intxaurbe works at the University of the Basque Country in Leioa, Spain. Torches are just one of several light sources Stone Age artists used to navigate caves. “You are not going to see what is in front of you,” he notes. The second: If something chases you, it will be hard to run. “The first sensation is that the ground is very wet and cold,” he says. But the first time he navigated a cave the way humans thousands of years ago would have - barefoot while holding a torch - he learned two things. As a geologist who studies Stone Age cave art, Iñaki Intxaurbe is used to making treks underground in a headlamp and boots.

Torchlight 2 art