92 000 years ago, humans significantly altered ecology and landscapes using fire.
Archaeologists believe the humans who arrived in the Karonga district started burning down the forest to open the landscape for hunting. Photo: Og Mpango/Unsplash.
As far as we know, humans as a species have been around for at least 300 000 years. Recently, we have come to realize that our impact on the climate and earth’s ecology is unsustainable. Landscape change driven by humans is nothing new, however.
In a new study, archaeologists suggest that we have always altered the ecology and landscape to our benefit. At least they can now prove that we did so, almost 100 000 years ago.