"Modern humans may have been using fire to make tools more than 30,000 years earlier than once thought, according to archaeologists working in a string of rocky caves along the South African coast. At Pinnacle Point, researchers have found evidence that people began heat-treating stone to make it easier to shape into tools about 70,000 years ago and possibly as early as 164,000 years ago. The find adds to the evidence that a wide range of sophisticated behaviors--from advanced toolmaking to symbolism--were flourishing around the same time."
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/813/1