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Apr. 29th, 2004 03:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheScientists trace ancient signs of fire's use
More than three-quarters of a million years ago, early humans gathered around a campfire near an ancient lake in what is now Israel, making tools and perhaps cooking food, in the earliest evidence yet found of the use of fire in Europe or Asia.
Researchers have found evidence that these early people hunted and processed meat and used fire at a site called Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in the northern Dead Sea valley.
Developing the ability to use fire “surely led to dramatic changes in their behavior connected with diet, defense and social interaction,” said lead researcher Naama Goren-Inbar of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Occupation of the site has been dated at about 790,000 years ago, according to the research team. Their findings are reported in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
More than three-quarters of a million years ago, early humans gathered around a campfire near an ancient lake in what is now Israel, making tools and perhaps cooking food, in the earliest evidence yet found of the use of fire in Europe or Asia.
Researchers have found evidence that these early people hunted and processed meat and used fire at a site called Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in the northern Dead Sea valley.
Developing the ability to use fire “surely led to dramatic changes in their behavior connected with diet, defense and social interaction,” said lead researcher Naama Goren-Inbar of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Occupation of the site has been dated at about 790,000 years ago, according to the research team. Their findings are reported in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.