Final answer:
Before fire, humans stayed warm by creating clothing from animal hides, forming tight-knit communities for resource sharing, and building shelters. Eventually, controlled use of fire as a source of warmth became a fundamental part of human survival.
Step-by-step explanation:
Before humans harnessed the power of fire, they adopted various strategies to stay warm and survive in cold climates. One of the key ways was through creating clothing from animal hides, which they fashioned using stone tools. As time progressed, humans developed more sophisticated clothing, including the invention of sewing needles made of bone around thirty thousand years ago.
Another survival tactic was the formation of small tight-knit communities to pool resources and share the burden of securing necessities such as edible plants, water, and game. Such cooperation was essential for surmounting the challenges posed by ice age climates, where resources were scarce. Some groups were even capable of building shelters, such as those made of mammoth bones covered with animal hides, found in Eastern Europe.
Furthermore, the control of fire, which is evidenced to have been a part of human life by at least about 125,000 years ago, provided a significant advantage by allowing warmth in cold environments, deterring predators, facilitating the cooking of food, and strengthening community bonds through social gatherings.