400,000-year-old evidence of fire-making found in Barnham

The earliest known evidence of fire-making, dating back around 400,000 years, has been unearthed in a "ground-breaking" discovery at a field in Suffolk.

A team of researchers, led by the British Museum, have made a major breakthrough in their study of human evolution following excavations at a disused clay pit in Barnham, near Thetford.

Until now, the oldest known evidence of fire-making was from 50,000 years ago in northern France, but the discovery in Suffolk shows humans were doing so 350,000 years earlier.

The evidence consists of a patch of heated clay, heat-shattered flint handaxes and two small pieces of iron pyrite.

It has taken the team four years to prove the heated clay was not caused by wildfire.

Dr Rob Davis, who led the project alongside Professor Nick Ashton, said: "The