"Native Americans burned oily fish (candle fish) wedged into a forked stick."
Bob Sherman, Candle Making History
It is difficult to attribute the invention of the candle to one society or country. The first "candles" may have been nothing more than melting lumps of animal fat set on fire. Later, these evolved into reeds dipped into animal fat, longer burning than their predecessors but still without a wick (a central slow-burning core to the candle, usually made from fiber or cord).
Archeological evidence indicates that both the Egyptians and the Greeks were using candles with wicks (not dissimilar to those we know today) as long ago as 3000 B.C.E. Many ancient cultures appear to have developed some variation of the candle, using materials such as beeswax or tallow or even the product of berries to make the wax. This surrounded a wick made from fibers of plant material, rolled papyrus, or rolled rice paper.
Burning with a regular flame and at a constant speed, the candle remained the preferred way of producing controlled artificial light for millennia. Candles remained a cheap, efficient way of creating light throughout the Middle Ages and right up until the mid-nineteenth century, when paraffin first became commercially available and the paraffin lamp entered most homes. Since the advent of gas and then electricity, the role of candles has largely been to create a peaceful, reflective, and nostalgic atmosphere, either in a religious setting or in the home.
