1,600,000 to 250,000 B.C.E.

Homo erectus, the first hominid who learned to make and keep fires, lived as hunter/gatherers, moving in small bands across the countryside. But despite what must have been a tough life, Homo erectus appears to have stopped and wondered at sparkling formations of crystals. Collections of crystals have been found in several excavated Homo erectus campsites. Later early humans started collecting fossils and oddly shapes stones.