There are many hypotheses why people needed fire. Someone thinks -for heating. Looks like. But what about the fact that some of the tribes of Neanderthals who lived in the northern latitudes did not know fire? Perhaps to scare off predators? Or tanning hides? It is not excluded. But the efforts expended by a person to obtain fire immeasurably exceeded the result of achieving goals of this kind. Everyone agrees that fire was primarily needed by people for cooking.
And again the question arises: why? The answer seems to be on the surface – cooked food is much tastier. But it tastes better for you and me. To ancient people, raw food seemed more familiar and tastier. The author is convinced that people switched to cooked food to protect themselves from diseases that, quite likely, caused severe damage to the tribe. At the same time, those who ate thermally processed foods survived.
The transition to cooked food has changed the appearance of people. The teeth changed, a more powerful jaw was not required, the intestines became shorter, but the brain just increased. It was just right to think about how to simplify cooking. Because at first it was a very laborious process. People dug holes, filled them with water, and then lowered red-hot stones and provisions into them. Now people needed dishes.
And again the fire helped out. Having extracted it, a person learned how to burn clay. If the fire was built on a clay platform, then it happened to find pieces of ceramics under it later. The book tells about the latest archaeological finds confirming that the production of ceramics began from ancient times. Ceramic containers have since become reliable human companions and continue to remain so to this day.
People were born and died, and after reading the book, the reader will learn how the ancestors acted with the deceased tribesmen. Perhaps, together with the author, he will wonder why the funeral rite has become so important for people. The book tells when the burial intentional graves appeared and why people began to bury their relatives, how the gradual development of funeral rituals took place, how the buried rites of Homo Sapiens, Heidelberg man and Neanderthal differ, and how the buried rite evolved in Homo Sapiens throughout its history.