She used ESR to show that antelope bones discovered in a cave near Johannesburg, South Africa, had been burnt at temperatures so high they had to be produced by campfires using wood and not grass fires. Her evidence indicated that hominids harvested fire from lightning 1.5 million years ago—about a million years earlier than previously believed. Skinner says her work reveals that the hominids, while not able to deliberately strike flint to make sparks, could "take advantage of natural occurrences. They displayed more intellectual ability, creativity, and cultural complexity than people would have thought."

The Indian sites—which were challenging because their acidic soil significantly decays whatever is buried in it—gave the students a chance to practice their newfound archeology skills. After rising early, loading their gear, and traveling an hour to a site, or prospecting for a new one, Marte and Jamorabo dug step trenches, or terraces, at outcrops exposed by erosion. The young men kept detailed field notebooks, and Skinner took pictures and soil samples.

Although the most important discovery—a hippopotamus's tooth—was made by the Indian team after Skinner and her young apprentices had returned home (it was later given to her for analysis), Skinner says the students' "main rewards were the experience of being in a different environment intellectually—out in the field, not in the library or lab—and seeing a different way of life."

Jamorabo, who loves traveling and learning for its own sake, says the trip gave him a chance to ponder the broad picture of human evolution as he examined stone tools and discussed their uses with the Indian archeology team. "Dr. Skinner gave us the context [in discussions before and during the trip], but it's not the same as seeing it and doing it yourself," he says.

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