predicting the time of the first *flint matches* by Homo species development of Firemaking by Hominins

This can be done by using various logical tools such as Occam's Razor, Least Energy principle and math probability theory.

At some moment in primate evolution there existed 500,000 Homo individuals and before that time less and after that time exceeded that number. And the probability of a major discovery of technology such as flint-matches to make a fire upon demand would arise when the probability of population size would have chances of making that discovery.

Least Energy in the fact that so often the Hominin species or Homo species would be keeping their fire-log alive and the rain or something would put it out. And so fire-on-demand would be a premium sought for discovery. The flint rock sharpening with its attendent sparks would be less energy than the stick drill rotation friction fire.

Occam's Razor and Least Energy in the fact that early hominins were Stonethrowers anyway and to make knifes requires sharp rocks such as flint and so they would have come into awareness of flint sparks.

So, we would need some sort of quantification of flint outcrops in Africa. We would need some sort of quantification of hominin and Homo population sizes for the past 10 million years.

We would then juxtapose the increasing Hominin & Homo population sizes with the increasing complexity of newly discovered technologies which this list is just a rough first estimate:

(1) Stonethrowing . . . (n) skins to carry extra stones and rocks . . . (o) knives out of stones . . . (p) firelog carried around to keep campfire and start grassland fires . . . (q) flint match to start fires upon demand

The idea is that if Hominin or Homo species altogether was a small number that they would not discover flint as a fire-match until the population number attained a certain size for which some of those Homo species would make that discovery. A confluence of population size, of need would facilitate the discovery of flint-matches.

For example, if Africa some 3 million years ago had 100 accessible flint

rock outcrops and had a Hominin and Homo total population of 200,000 individuals and then 2 million years ago had 200 accessible flint outcrops and had a Hominin and Homo total population of 500,000 individuals then the chances of flint-matches discovered is increased substantially.

This is not exact science, but it is the best we can do to try to pinpoint the first date of the discovery of flint-matches.

And I bet this discovery was much earlier than any paleoanthropologist of anthropologist is willing to admit.

I say much earlier because the need for a continuous fire by Australopithecus as he hunted in the open grasslands and is on the way to becoming the top predator of that environment needed a nighttime bed on the ground and able to ward off predators. So the need for a campfire as 'home' was a major impetus of early hominins.

Now this exercise when fully done is going to guess-estimate a time in which Homo species first made fire from flint as a matchstick and so that Homo could make fire upon demand.

My theory of: Ape species + Stonethrowing behaviour

Has any paleoanthropologist or anthropoligist ever attempted to make a detailed mapping of the location of flint deposits readily available to Hominins or Homo species stretching back in time for 6 million years?

If not, why not? Lack of research funding?

It would be nice to know with some degree of accuracy where flint deposit outcrops existed in the world, especially Africa for the past 6 million years of time.

Perhaps the geologists would be a major help in such a project. Perhaps it is relatively easy to do this project and with much accuracy.

I know of nothing on such a grand scale, but one of the grad students here (a geo/anthro double major type as an undergrad) has done extensive research of some American Flint deposits. Also, the anthro types seem to have a much better handle on chert/flint typing/localities

Basically, it's a good idea, and as somebody else stated, it is frequently done on a local scale (i.e. finding the deposits available to the Homo * living in such and such precise place).

On a global scale, it would be the hell of a big work. Especially because such a deposit can be very small (less than 10 m in some case); mapping the whole earth surface at a 10 m scale is .... well, close to impossible ! And even if you do not directly map, such small things are so easy to miss when you're in the field (not entering a bush, turning round a tree the wrong way, etc...)

help in telling us whether chert/flint outcrops follow any patterns.

There are two major environments for in situ flint: carbonates and deep ocean shales. In carbonates (limestones, dolostones, chalk) flint usually occurs in nodules or nodule layers (rounded stones) between the sediments. In America at least, the natives quarried these stones in bluff faces and caves walls. In the other situation, (ocean shales) flint occurs as layers which can be deformed and/or metamorphosed when they became part of the continent (think San Franciscan shales, Arkansas novaculite). I know nothing about African geology. Ample supplies of chert/flint are available many places where the bedrock is limestone, or shales are easily decomposed

I still have not gotten any answer as to whether all of the existing Australopithecus and hominin fossil finds had flint/chert outcrops or gravel bed or remnants associated with those fossils.

It would be nice to mapp all the flint/chert outcrops for the past 10 million years for the entire planet Earth, but as you say, difficult. And I would suspect that such a detailed mapping is not necessary for I would guess that such a mapping after due course would reveal many answers from just a preliminary project that the full detailed project would be seen as unnecessary, since the main vital questions would have been answered in the preliminary investigation.