History of Fire Making Methods

Brief History of Human's use and control of Fire

(Updated 13/10/2023) : This is a brief potted history of the use and control of fire. I've included a short summary , followed by a lengthier discussion. Also read this blog post for further musings on the Ancestry of Fire. I describe the friction methods in more detail here.
Caveat - I am not an archaeologist or academic so this is only based on my own potted research on info publicly available on the internet and my own thoughts/theories. Some of this article may now be inaccurate/surpassed by new finds so I'm happy for people to send references to reports/articles etc. This article is only meant as a guideline and we'll never really know for sure - that's what I like - it's all a mystery :)
Brief Timeline:

over 1 million years ago approx - first evidence of use of fire by our distant ancestors (Homo Erectus) in Africa
200,000 years ago approx - first evidence of Homo Sapiens in Africa - it is thought fire making methods (Percussion & Friction) developed by Homo Sapiens but exactly when, no one knows ( there are theories that Neanderthals also learnt to make fire using fire by percussion)
Neolithic (10,000BC onwards) - evidence of fire by percussion. Earliest archaeological evidence of friction fire approx 4000BC in Triquet Island, BC, Canada (apparently.)
Iron Age (1200 BC) onwards - fire steels invented at some point in Iron Age and primary method in many cultures until 19th century when matches invented! Friction fire still in use for ritual (e.g Neid Fire) and by indigenous peoples. Solar methods also invented in later BC centuries.
19th century - matches invented which replaced fire steels
20th century - Ferrocerium invented which saw invention of Modern Lighters and Ferro rods. Fire Roll apparently invented during WWII. Lots of other novel ways as well.

Wonderwark cave, South Africa

Paleolithic - Early Stone Age
"Fire has many uses, both ritual and practical, and plays an important role in our lives.In Africa, evidence for deliberate exploitation of natural fires may date back as far as 1.5 million years ago" (River Pitt museum.) This would have been by our ancestors, Homo erectus, although many may dispute the evidence, there is evidence in Wonderwark cave, South Africa dating back 1 Million years ago (see this article here .)

It is thought that our early human ancestors (e.g. Homo erectus) learnt to control naturally occurring fires e.g. bush fires, lighting strikes and larva flows. The use and control of fire has been described as the “single most important innovation in our evolution”. It is thought that eating cooked food had a major impact as cooked food is much more easily digested and uses less calories to chew and digest ; and providing additional calories to allow our brains to grow; it is also thought that as we didn't need to process raw food our jaws and teeth became smaller and since we needed less intestines to digest food our torso became thinner. No one can ever know what happened, only assumptions and guesses but in some way or other our ancestors realised fire made you warm, and that cooked food tasted a lot better than raw food and so the story began! I like to say that we are forged from fire!

The next chapter may have been learning how to transport fire e.g. using embers, smouldering wood, dried fungi etc, but s unknown at what point our ancestors learnt this, but this would have also been a very important stage as it would have helped our ancestors to move around, rather than stay in one spot.

Many archaeologists theorise that it wasn’t until Homo sapiens evolved and emerged from Africa 200, 000 years ago, that the chapter of discovering how to light fires from scratch begun (tho there are theories and maybe some artefactual evidence of Neandertherals using fire by percussion - see here) Our stone age ancestors were working with stones from Paleolithic and this is how fire by percussion would have developed but who knows how early they became successful at this!

Upper Paleolithic onwards

There are theories that fire by percussion (striking of stones e.g. flint and pyrite) was used from the late Paleolithic period , but limited archaeological evidence of this until Mesolithic/ Neolithic period where there is more evidence . See an article here.
There is also evidence\theories that Neanderthals learnt to control fire and possibly they also learnt to make fire. (I'm sure there may be more evidence since writing this article too)

Due to wood rotting there is no evidence of friction fire until approx 4000BC (see further below) and it seems many historians\archaeologists surmise that flint & pyrite predates friction fire though no one knows for sure. However , the earliest perforated artefacts assumed using a drill, such as bone, ivory, shells and antlers , are from the Upper Paleolithic era, and drills were basically the same technology as fire drills hence the reasoning that...Ancient drills (hand drill, bow drill, strap drill, pump drill) were used in ancient woodwork, stonework, dentistry and fire making. Archaeologists discovered a Neolithic grave yard in Mehrgrath, Pakistan dating from around 7,500–9,000 years ago, containing bodies with a total of 11 teeth that had been drilled, which again gives some clues but no concrete evidence of how far back drills (and possibly fire drills) date.

I have made friction sets with very basic stone tools ( a lot more basic than our stone age ancestors were capable of making) which proves that our ancestors had the tools to make friction sets (see blog post ) There have been many archaeological finds of stone axe heads and stone blades.

I'm sure some methods were invented\discovered in parallel throughout the world depending on materials available and climate etc, and there is no evidence of which friction methods came first, so I'm guessing the simplest friction methods such as fire plough and fire saw may have been attempted first , followed by hand drill, bow drill and pump drill (sheer guess!). It is thought the bow drill was developed from the bow and arrow and apparently the earliest evidence of arrows is from approx 60,000 years ago in Africa ... so could it go back that far....

The friction methods developed also may depend upon time frames of settlement of those continents as materials available influenced the method (see this wiki article here for human timeline) .... e.g..all timelines are approximate!

Africa populated from 200k years ago - hand drill is commonest method
Asia\Middle East populated from 115k years ago - bamboo fire saw is common as well as fire thong . Fire drills found in China (2500 years old) and in Chinese legends.
Egypt - archaeological evidence of bow drill from 2000BC
Australia 40k years ago - hand drill and fire plough as used by indigenous peoples and referenced in legends
Americas 10-20k years ago - hand drill - evidence of use by various North American tribes, Aztecs and Mayans from art etc and continued use by Indigenous peoples. Bow Drill more common in more Northern parts such as Canada and Alaska. Bow Drill common amongst Inuits. Pump Drill used by Iroquios.
Europe 45k years ago - very little evidence in Europe but hand drill is possible in Europe and so is the bow drill.
Britain - though there is archaeological evidence in Britain from around 400,000 years ago of various Homo species, it is thought Homo Sapiens only started to arrive in Britain after the last Ice Age from about 11,000BC over Doggerland (which once joined Britain to Europe) , though there is a theory that the majority of settlers started to arrive by sea from Europe from about 4000BC. I assume these settlers brought the skills\knowledge to light fires with them.

I would be very surprised if both percussion and friction methods hadn't at least been attempted from very early on.

The techniques would have been developed over many years by our ancestor's through observations, sheer determination and trial and error, The underlying principle of creating heat through friction may have been witnessed through natural phenomenon (e.g. branches rubbing together in the wind, bamboo rubbing together in the wind) or by "accident", which led to experimentation with different techniques. And with percussion it was most likely they got sparks when bashing two stones together.

There is also an article here about another theory of chemicals being used from maybe around 50,000 years ago!

so as I say it is all a bit of a mystery !

Neolithic Period (approx 10000 to 3000 BC)

Reconstruction of Ötzi

Flint and Iron Pyrite and Marcasite were some of the materials used in the Neolithic period for starting fires. The spark would have been a low temperature making it harder to start fires than modern day fire steels, however it is still possible with the correct stones, technique and tinder.

Otzi the Ice Man (approx 3300 BC - Bronze Age) was found with tinder fungus and what appeared to be a complex firelighting kit, including pieces of over a dozen different plants, in addition to flint and pyrite.

Bamboo strike-a-light kit from the collection of the the National Museum of Ethnology,Leiden,NL

It is also possible to strike flint against bamboo (with a high silicone content), which is used in South East Asia - see this interesting article here. I'm unsure how far this goes back......

The oldest surviving wooden fire drill appears to be 6000 years old! (approx 4000BC) found in Canada in 2016. See my bog post here. I only came across this in Oct 2018 - for me it's a very exciting find!

This is an interesting article : Minds on Fire: Cognitive Aspects of Early Firemaking and the Possible Inventors of Firemaking Kits (2023)

There is an interesting archeological report here about clay "spindles" dating to around 8000 BC and that they were "apparently" used as part of a fire drill.... Owen Budd (Australian archaeologist) has conducted his own experiments and proved that it is possible to use clay spindles on wood using the bowdrill! So maybe clay spindles were used....

Bronze Age onwards(approx 3300 BC - 1200 BC)

Friction Fire - there is archaeological evidence of friction fire around 2500BC - 2000BC from China and Egypt. Percussion would also have continued to be used.

There have been many finds of Bow Drills in Egyptian tombs and the Bow Drill is also depicted on murals within tombs, and the fire drill is represented by a heiroglyph.

A 4000 year old Egyptian Bow Drill in Manchester Museum

Carpenters in Rekhmire's tomb at Luxor using the Bow Drill (to drill holes rather than make fire)

I also came across this archeological report on the Ji’erzankale Necropolis dating back to 2500 years ago in Pamir Plateau in Xinjiang Province, China, where they found evidence of fire altars and fire drills and hearth boards. The report states that hearth boards were typically crafted from Populus. Hand drills were made from Populus or Salix (white willow), which is very interesting..

Interestingly friction fire is mentioned in most legends rather than sparking flints. Most evidence of friction fire can only be gleaned from old writings, stories and legends being passed down from generation to generation e.g. (see more under Sacred Fire menu)

The Navajo creation story features Black God, who invented the hand drill and gave humankind the means to light fires.
There are lots of legends from different cultures and a common theme is that fire is hidden in trees and plants and the only way to coax fire out is through friction fire. So far I've not actually found any old stories about the origin of fire which refer to flint, which makes me think whether friction fire did come before flint. In some places around the world, I'm sure friction fire did come first in some cultures, and was discovered independently around the world.

Also, it is important to add that our ancestors would have kept their fires lit or restarted them from embers (even taking embers with them) as much as possible even once they had learnt how to harness fire, and only in certain circumstances would they have lighted fires from scratch such as ceremonies.

See here for information on the different friction methods.

Traditional wooden Fire Pistons by Sepuh Crafts in Malaysia. Click photo to be taken to website.

There is also the fire piston which have been used in South East Asia and the Pacific Islands as a means of kindling fire for years. They use the principle of the heating of a gas (in this case air) by rapid and adiabatic compression to ignite a piece of tinder. They are found in cultures where the blow pipe is used as a weapon and this suggests they may have developed out of blow pipe construction. Their use has been reported from Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Indo-China, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, the Philippines, Madagascar and South India. I'm not sure how far back these date though but they certainly predate the modern "invention" of fire pistons in early 19th century in Europe. (see wikipedia article here.)

Iron Age ( 1200 - 1BC) to 19th Century

A viking Fire Steel found in Gotland, Sweden

In Northern Hemisphere, friction methods and Iron Pyrite and Flint were the prevailing methods up until sometime in the Iron Age (1200BC to 500BC) when metal fire strikers (also called fire steels) were developed which would likely have been the main method used by the Celts (700BC upto 40 AD), Romans, Vikings etc onwards until the 19th century!
Fire steels were struck against flint and were a development of flint and iron pyrite (used from Neolithic period.) There is a lot of archaeological evidence of Iron fire strikers. The metal fire strikers produce a spark much hotter than Iron Pyrite (but still a lot lower than modern Ferro rods), which was sparked onto a highly combustible material such as char cloth.

Friction fire still prevailed in these times, though.....

Theophrastus ( c. 371 – c. 287 BC), the Greek Botanist, wrote about the different woods used in Friction Fire over 2000 years ago! See this blog post.
Homer describes the Bow Drill in The Odyssey (circa 750BC) to drill out the Cyclops eye!
From Pliny's "Natural History" (Pliny was a Roman author and naval commander who died in 79 AD) there is written evidence of both Friction Fire, and Fire by Percussion being used within the Roman Empire. I've written a short blog post here.
The Old Norse\Icelandic language contains evidence that the fire-drill was known and used. There are two words in Old Icelandic that specifically refer to fire-drills. The first is bragð-alr "twirling-awl", a fire-drill used for making fire, and the second is bragðals-eldr, the term for a fire produced using a bragð-alr. I really like that there was a word specifically to describe a fire started by the fire-drill, which indicates it may have seen as a more special type of fire...maybe .....

I have also read about Bronze "Fire Steels", but I am told by a Bronzesmith that this would be impossible due to the make-up of bronze, and so "Fire Steels" made purely from bronze were more likely to have just been amulets. Small bronze amulets from the Viking Age (8AD to 11AD) shaped as fire-steels, have been found around Scandinavia in sets together with amulets in the shape of Thor's hammer Mjølnir . As the god of thunder, Thor was ruling the lightning. It is said that "The man who struck the fire [borrowed] a little of his power."

Friction Fire continued to be main method by indigenous tribes throughout the world e.g. Americas (hand drill, bow drill), Asia (bamboo fire saw), Africa (hand drill), Australia (hand drill, fire plough, fire saw.) The Fire Piston was also used throughout Asia.

Neid Fire was apparently used throughout Europe and Slavic countries for kindling sacred purifying fires (Neid Fire, Force Fire, Not Feur) from at least the Middle Ages up to the early 19th century, though they could predate Christianity. See more on Neid Fire

There is also the Vedic Fire Churn used in rituali, again it is unknown how far back these go, but Hindu religion is though to have started approx 1900BC. I've written about the Vedic Fire Churn here.

Solar lenses \ Fire Lenses \ Burning Glass - I've not done much research here but it seems the use of glass has been used to start fires from a couple of thousands years ago according to a wikipedia article (see here.) And there is the famous legend of Archimedes setting a fleet of Roman ships alight in 212BC using mirrors.

In the 18th century,lighters based on the flintlock pistols that used gunpowder were invented, but I don't think they were that widespread, and probably used more by the upper classes.

19th Century
Fire Steels were still the main method of lighting fires upto about the mid 19th century! As time progressed they were more likely made from higher carbon steel which gave hotter sparks more easily. A tinder box was a key item in most households. A tinderbox contained a firesteel, flint and tinder such as char cloth. See more info here on tinder boxes.

The next development in Europe was the Fire Piston in the early 19th century, however these had been used for hundreds, maybe thousands of years throughout South East Asia. The Fire Piston uses the principle of the heating of a gas (in this case air) by rapid compression to ignite a piece of tinder (typically char cloth), which is then used to set light to a tinder nest.

The major step forward, was the mass production of the match stick, which then became the most popular method of lighting fires from the mid 19th century (see more info here.)

Friction Fire continued to be main method by indigenous tribes throughout the world and in ritual (e.g. Vedic fire ritual), and it appears that the Fire Churns (used for Neid Fire) were used up to the early 19th century in Highlands of Scotland.

20th Century onwards
"Western World": The next step forward was the invention of Ferrocerium, a man made metallic substance which when struck by steel can produce sparks of upto 3000 degrees. Ferrocerium was patented in the early 20th century and made modern "cigarette" lighters possible. Cigarette lighters became common from the 1930s.

The Fire Roll or Rudiger Fire Roll was invented in early 19th century, which is credited to the German survivalist Rudiger Nehberg, but apparently this was first used by World War II prisoners to light their cigarettes. Flammable plant fibres (e.g. cotton wool) are typically rolled up with ash between two rocks or planks of wood, the friction of the fibres with the carbon (ash) causes the fibres to ignite and smoulder.

A modern and very common bushcraft tool today is the Ferro (Ferrocerium) Rod (also called fire steel) . The Ferro rod is the modern take on the Flint and Fire Steel. Ferro Rods can produce sparks of upto 3000 degrees when struck against steel - a lot lot hotter than the sparks produced from the earlier fire steels so are a lot easier to light tinder. I don't really like Ferro rods as it is a modern man made material, and the sparks are actually little shards of very hot metal.

Another novel modern way of lighting a fire is using wire wool on a 9V battery - it maybe seen as fun but again not a method I personally like.

Solar fire lighting - Magnifying glasses work well to light fires, and you can also now get modern Solar Fire Starters (just google them!) It is also possible to start a fire using a plastic bottle of water (it does work!) , a bag full of water , and use crystals, vases etc.
Of course it's all dependent on the Sun!

Friction Fire continues to be used by indigenous tribes throughout the world, and there is a growing number of bush craft enthusiasts and others who are learning and using friction fire techniques, though sadly it is used less within ritual (it is still used in Vedic fire rituals but not as common.)

Other methods
There are other methods I've not mentioned such as chemical compounds etc.