For Whom Fire Burnt.
This novel was completed in August 2000. It is a tale of how our pre-historic forefathers may have lived and survived through the great upheaval of a period of climate change. Much of the pre-history in the tale is fact whilst much of the human day to day living was determined, contrived, or pure imagination.
The time period of the novel is between 30 thousand and 40 thousand years ago, the late Palaeolithic,
The main characters are Homo sapiens, sapiens, our direct prehistoric biological ancestors. They share our brain capacity. They are cunning; can calculate, determine and reason.
Prior to Homo Sapiens a number of Hominids used naturally occurring fire. The use of fire by Hominin is likely to date back 600,000* to 1 million years. (*First used/controlled by Homo erectus on the African continent.). But the dating of the actual technology/art of causing/producing fire with friction tools still remains a puzzle.
Fire was always more than a mere source of energy. It was also a means of esteem, social status and personal power. It allowed food to be cooked and more edible. Cooking food brought people together and the holder of fire was revered as the master of ceremony and a person of note and prestige.
Hundreds of thousands of years passed. Eventually the skill of making fire by friction methods evolved. Human kind knew without a doubt, this was an enormous technical breakthrough. This novel know-how and technology were prized. The knowledge, skills and tools would become the corner stone to human progress across planet Earth. Meanwhile in remote isolated pockets on Earth indigenous human’s societies may have already developed their unique skills of the fire lighting prowess beyond the European Homo sapiens. E.g. The Indigenous Australians and American Indians. Overall the skills were reasonably similar; composed of two sticks being driven at right angles directly on dried leaves. Other times it was a bow of dried animal intestine twirling an opposing stick to grind friction in a hearth of leaves, also used were two stones ground together with dried leaves locked between to cause combustion, Refined finally was the precision pestle and bowl to grind leaves into smouldering embers. All methods based on friction generating heat.
For humans to make fire was a miracle. Fire had previously always come from lightening strikes, hot gurgling volcano lava or spontaneous combustion of materials. So it was not surprising these new developed innovative skills were guarded, kept secret from friends and foe. Fire making skill was a valued profession. It was a massive commercial resource and some of our pre-historic forefathers decided to commercialize the process. During the same period as fire lighting was commercialized the Homo sapiens realised that many human items could be mass produced, improved and marketed - for a profit. Encouraged by the success of fire making know-how, the entrepreneur had arrived on planet Earth. Innovation sprung up wherever the Homo sapiens walked. They conquered the planet; their supremacy had dawned.
Yet an Ice Age was about to engulf them.
Our forefathers knew hunger, wealth, greed and lust. Being human they experienced anger, sorrow and affection. They dreamt, wondered, knew the depths of their soul and some times walked with dignity. These humans loved and loved deeply. They embraced hope.
Their known world in a catastrophic climate change they strove to survive. They were driven always by a perpetual hope in a better way for a better tomorrow.
Between us and our pre-historic forefathers there is no difference. They are us, we are them.