Prehistoric Firelighting with Dr. James Dilley

[@karmaarachnid8345]

Excellent! Stefan Milo sent me here. I look forward to watching the rest of your videos.

[@6bonjour]

I recently came upon your channel and you tick all the boxes. Educational and interesting. Thank you.

[@wheatgrowssweet]

I've learned so many small details about how our ancestors lived from watching this series of videos. A history book will focus on the big picture events, but seeing it enacted like this really gives you the gritty details. Thank you so much!

[@MrVvulf]

I assume your favorite member of the cast from the show "Time Team" was field archaeologist Phil Harding, the man who loved flint knapping.

[@ErtachKernow]

Excellent video James. Presumably this type of fire making continued well into much later ages until iron was being produced and used rather than the stone against the flint. Very useful information for those of us involved in the heritage sector in explaining how ancient people lived. Thank you.

[@ancientcraftUK]

Definitely up to the arrival of iron. There’s a few burials around the UK from the early Bronze Age with firelighting sets just like the above

[@BirdLegacyBlades]

Came here by way of Stefan Milo's channel and this is an equally excellent channel! Great explanation and historical information. i am looking forward to watching more!! I think James has a winner here.

[@QuantumMech_88]

Excellent demonstration and the success was fast . Good quality pyrite is hard to find and the sparks are difficult to see unless in low light . The Old Ones must have considered viable pyrite like gold . Congrats for living where Daldinia is . Thanks again for another great video and all the best .

[@waveman0]

the cost of marcasite has really jumped lately, a nodule like you showed at the beginning would be worth several hundred dollars for me to buy and unfortunately, I cannot seem to find any in the bush here in Australia. Direct evidence for percussion fire-lighting is at least 5000 years ago with Otzi, his fire kit contained marcasite, flint and tinder fungus. To think that early humans were using percussion fire-lighting 50,000 years ago is astounding. very informative video mate. May I suggest when using chaga use a fine saw (from a swiss army knife, which I found perfect) to grind it up into a fine powder and then drive the sparks into the fine powered, it seems to pick up the spark better? Once the spark catches and the ember forms allow it to grow, gently adding more chaga dust into the ember. Once it is established then transfer that into your tinder bundle.

[@MonAirPaleoTV]

Thank you! We like your way of educating very much.

[@azgrapefruit]

You are a great teacher! Have been able to emulate this technique with practice…very labor intensive compared to lighting a match…but this is much more fun.

[@Mgt461]

An excellent video demonstrating and explaining an early fire making technique. Fascinating. Thank you,

[@robertmeadows7508]

Enjoyed watching ,thank you ! I have attempted several times to produce fire using these materials with little success ! However I took great delight in at least producing many 'cold' red sparks that failed to 'germinate' upon the fungi no matter how I prepared it ! I ended each long attempt filthy dirty & exhausted ,but feeling great respect for our ancestors !

[@MrBottlecapBill]

I can never hear anything in these videos without cranking my volume to max.

[@ancientcraftUK]

We had some sound compression issues with the first lot of videos. Hopefully the later ones are better?

[@MaikeVogtLueerssen]

Absolutely great!!!!

[@janetmackinnon3411]

Such a clear and interesting explanation. Thank you.

[@GoldFaceFella]

Love your channel. Great content.

[@marycomeau9364]

Thank you for your time and easy to follow lessons.

[@errantball2012]

Thanks. Much appreciated!

[@williamlake6151]

Great video

[@greenjack1959l]

Nicely explained as in all of your videos, great channel. I have tried this with gold coloured pyrites bought from a shop in Swanage, but it was really fragile and kept crumbling away, so I gave up on it. This has inspired me to try again, if I can obtain some of better quality.

[@ancientcraftUK]

I actually sell fire lighting kits on my website with marcasite pyrite rather than the non- sparking gift shop stuff. Check out my webshop

[@glen9593]

That was great. Thanks.

[@tedred2657]

Really interesting and great demonstration

[@MrShinobiguy]

Love your videos

[@KelvynTaylor]

Thanks for this !

[@thechildofthedamned]

i gotta say i am blown away by all the amazing and educating content you have been making. i am learning so much. i have a question about the king alfreds cake fungus. are there similar fungus like it? because i found some that look exatcly like it on a dead ash, but no matter what i try i cant get it to catch a spark, not even if i put a lighter to it.

[@ancientcraftUK]

Not really, King Alfred’s have brown concentric rings in the interior which is the giveaway. Hence the Latin “concentrica”

[@TheManOfTwistsAndTurns]

I've watched every video on your channel, I enjoyed all of them, very informative, educational and the quality is great! The only thing I don't like is the sound, some videos are a little bit quiet, maybe that is my phone's fault. Thank you for your videos and I hope you keep on making them :D

[@ancientcraftUK]

Thank you! Yes the sound issue has been a frustrating area. But we’re working on it for season 2!

[@TheManOfTwistsAndTurns]

@@ancientcraftUK very nice to see you are working on the issue! can't wait for S2 ! 👌

[@PaleoGreenByrd]

I love your videos, I just wish I could hear you better. My volume is maxed and I can barely hear you. I turn on CC and all is fine, just thought I would share the feedback. Thanks for everything you share.

[@ancientcraftUK]

Yeah it was a real annoyance when we realised YT had compressed the audio file. But we’ll be starting the new series soon! Thanks for your feedback 👍

[@PaleoGreenByrd]

@@ancientcraftUK Can't wait!

[@littledockens]

Hello James, I came across a video some years ago (USA) where they used amadou (chaga) on a flat wooden surface, a grooved marcasite nodule held down on top of it and a very short bladed flint "knife". By jabbing the blade down into the marcasite groove, sparks and ember were seemingly guaranteed after a few seconds. This is perhaps because the stone doesn't move when hit with the blade, more energy transferred into the strike. Further research turned up a Victorian book describing the contemporary use of same by the Inuit. Otzi's "knife" looks remarkably similar, are they by any chance connected?

[@ancientcraftUK]

From the use-wear analysis, no traces of marcasite were found on Otzi's knife. It showed the knife had been reflaked however even if the knife had come into contact with marcasite before being reflaked it's still likely traces would have been found. There were tiny fragments of marcasite found in one of the birch bark containers that held an ember wrapped in maple leaves but the nodule and tool were never found.

[@lindasue8719]

( off-topic: does anyone know how to make volume louder within the app? When I'm on my laptop I can adjust the volume with my laptop settings, but there's also a volume slider on the app. I don't see that here, and my phone volume is as loud as it will go)

[@LuisB.Cardenas]

Nice! What about In North America?

[@revolvermaster4939]

That’s far superior to building a friction fire, takes far fewer calories! Excellent presentation as are the rest.

[@LuxisAlukard]

Surprisingly, no dislikes. Nice!

[@Smikkelboy69]

Why is the audio volume so low?

[@ancientcraftUK]

Hey, it’s a compression issue when you upload to KZbin. We’ve worked out the problem and hope to make new versions soon

[@Smikkelboy69]

@@ancientcraftUK Thank you for the reply :) That is great to hear. Your videos are very pleasant to watch, and your way of speaking makes the knowledge you are trying to share very comprehensible.

[@MrCasual14]

Cool video mate. Are there any other stones that are able to produce sparks in a similar fashion?

[@Pyropithecus]

Not really. To my knowledge, the sparking properties needed for fire making seem to be confined to iron sulphide minerals like pyrite and marcasite (FeS₂), though I have heard of one bushcrafter using pentlandite, and iron-nickle sulphide mineral ((Fe, Ni)₉S₈), to make sparks, though I've not tried it personally. I have tried using chalcopyrite, a copper iron sulphide mineral (CuFeS₂), but without success. As for the striker, this can be pretty much any stone or mineral that is as hard as or harder than the pyrite/marcasite (so at or above 6.5 on the Mohs hardness scale), so flint, chert, quartz, quartzites, etc. (all ~7 on the Mohs scale) all work well and would have been readily available to ancient people for fire making given that these materials were often being used to make their stone tools. Also noteworthy, Inuit/Eskimo people were known to use two pieces of pyrite to make fire, according to ethnographic sources.

[@ancientcraftUK]

Very grey, quartz-rich flint will spark against quartzite. Though the sparks are very unpredictable and go out quickly

[@Pyropithecus]

@@ancientcraftUK But, in your experience, do the sparks carry, and have you managed to light a fire this way? It's generally understood that the sparks produced by silicious rocks bring struck together produces only light, not heat, a phenomenon called "triboluminescence", and is therefore unsuitable for producing fire. However, I'd be very interested to be shown otherwise!

[@ancientcraftUK]

You’re right, they don’t even burn your skin. As I said they go out very quickly, though I have not tried to start a fire with them. I think I’d need very very good tinder! Magic tinder even! 😂

[@Pyropithecus]

@@ancientcraftUK Not even sure adding powdered manganese dioxide would help you in this situation, but it certainly helps with pyrite! Using it with your normal tinder during fire making demos will not only get you a spark captured more quickly (thereby making you look extra cool!), but it also adds a nice extra (though still hypothetical, at this point) element to the Neandertal fire making story!

[@schoolofthenomad]

Volume is a bit low, my friend. Just a heads up.

[@Pyropithecus]

If anyone is curious about the research on Neandertal fire making mentioned by James, check out our open access article here: www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28342-9.

[@Hellemokers]

Great. Next time turn up the volume

[@ancientcraftUK]

Yes the sound issue has been a frustrating area. But we’re working on it for season 2!

[@GorFrag]

volume!!

[@daniels4209]

like will be given. subscribe will be held as long as its one video or less a week.

[@mikethemaniacal]

biggest thing i learned is a new way to say "pyrites" (pie-rights)

[@MrJento]

Can’t hear you....!

[@johnchristopherrobert1839]

The audio is terrible. Using a external mic will improve your content quality substantially.

[@thephenom724]

I know this is not a reliable method of starting a fire, but it's still interesting. Is it weird that I want to try this?

[@SenorTucano]

It’s called pyrite…. Literally fire rock

[@antoniescargo4158]

Use a microphone.

[@kurtisengle6256]

England and America Two peoples seperated by a common language. Py rit ease. Py rite. Alu-mineum. Aluminum. Patato. Pa tato. Tomato. To mahto. Africa. Arfircar. For some reason Australia doesn't end with an imaginary 'r'. Why not? Maybe you English would please either LEARN ENGLISH or at least butcher English consistantly. So we can translate.