Crystals from the fish teeth showed evidence of being heated at lower temperatures than raw fire
Posted on 11/20/2022 10:38:21 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Human beings used fire to cook food hundreds of thousands of years earlier than previously thought, an Israeli-led group of researchers has suggested.
They found evidence in the 780,000-year-old remains of a huge carp-like fish discovered in northern Israel.
The scientists noted "the transition from eating raw food to eating cooked food had dramatic implications for human development and behaviour".
The previous earliest evidence of cooking dated from about 170,000 BC.
The remains of the two-metre (6.5ft) fish were found at the Gesher Benot Yaaqob archaeological site which spans the River Jordan about 14km (8.5 miles) north of the Sea of Galilee.
Researchers led by Dr Irit Zohar of Tel Aviv University studied crystals from the enamel of the fish's teeth, which were found in large quantities at the site. The way the crystals had expanded was a sign that they had not been exposed to direct fire, but cooked at a lower temperature...
The scientists determined that the fish once populated the ancient Hula Lake which existed at the site until it was drained in the 1950s to try to eradicate malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
Other archaeological evidence found at the site indicates it was inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers for tens of thousands of years.
The team believe the location of such freshwater areas offers a clue to the route followed by early man on its migration out of Africa to the Levant and further afield.
The latest findings came from a joint study involving scientists from Israeli, British and German institutions.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
School joke omitted.
A 6-foot carp? Fishermen have been lying longer than I thougt.
Yup, but they could only catch one a day. /rimshot
Just think. It took 780,000 years of evolution to lead up to the culinary achievement of the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish.
The 20th was the last day of the McRib, apparently.
Historic, of course. But I never ate one.
Did they find any lemons? Maybe test for beer batter.
The 20th was the last day of the McRib, apparently.
“Sammich, prepare me a woman”
O RLY
The fish teeth also showed that fish only had rudimentary dental skills.
Yeah, if the article hadn’t said the fish was from Israel, I’d have guessed it was British.
Well, if they had used fluoridated water in their cooking, the fish wouldn’t have had bad teeth!..............
“The way the crystals had expanded was a sign that they had not been exposed to direct fire, but cooked at a lower temperature.”
A bit contradictory, unless they’re asserting the earliest development/use of cookware they’ve NOT found at the site.
“The lower red line at CS = 18 nm marks the threshold between unheated fish (CS < 18 nm) and fish heated at moderate temperatures (200–500 °C).”
This suggests the use of an oven type of arrangement (obviously stone), an even more significant development than what the bs bbc article suggests (passage is from the paper itself).
AH-HAH: Found it
“Identification of the cooking method practiced by the GBY inhabitants is indeed a challenge, especially since no traces of cooking apparatus have been preserved at the site, nor at any other Acheulian site. Nonetheless, ethnographic and experimental studies indicate that fish cooking requires production of low–moderate heat (300–500 °C), while preventing fast cooling or direct burning44,49,70–72. One possibility, therefore, is that the GBY inhabitants used some kind of earth oven that maintained a temperature below 500 °C (refs. 73–75) to cook their fish.”
It’s amazing that the bbc couldn’t highlight the TRUE nature of this discovery (not).
IMHO, this lends more evidence for lost culture. 780k years ago. Just wow.
I bought two McRibs,cost me almost 11 bucks!
Well you saved $489.00 on the $500 colon cleanse
Fried seafood is the Ultimate Sin.
I agree. There’s evidence in some other (less old) sites that soup was made, but it was a preceramic culture, so, apparently they built a sort of tripod and hung a skin full of ingredients over an open fire. Or somethin’.
Bread didn’t come along until around 14,000 years ago, which means, no hush puppies for around 766,000 years.
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