How well was fire contextually understood by ancient humans?

by Myfrenchtoast

This seems like a weird concept since we all take fire for granted these days. But I am very curious if there are any writing or evidence explaining what fire meant to ancient humans. Was it thought of like a regular permanent object? Like a rock? Was it though of like a living object that lived and died? These people had no understanding of combustion or thermodynamics. So what was their general mindset. Or maybe they didnt attempt to explain the nature of things at all and just took it for grated as well.

Nomsheep

/r/AskAnthropology might be a good place to ask this as well