ABSTRACT
Archaeology uses painstaking scientific methods to discover our human pasts. For most of our past, humans lived in small groups, hunting, fishing, and harvesting wild plants. About one million years ago, humans made the greatest technological advance of all time: controlling fire. Fire enabled humans to spread into cold climates, and to cook food to make many plants edible and to reduce the amount of strength in jaws needed to masticate foods. Smaller, lighter jaws evolved that make human speech possible.
