Posted on 04/29/2004 4:20:49 PM PDT by blam
Charred remains may be earliest human fires
19:00 29 April 04
NewScientist.com news service
Archaeologists in Israel may have unearthed the oldest evidence of fire use by our ancestors.
The site, on the banks of the Jordan River, dates to about 790,000 years ago. There are older sites in Africa, but the evidence from these is much more hotly contested.
The moment that our ancestors discovered how to control fire has long occupied an iconic place in the popular imagination. Chimpanzees, our closest living ancestors, have demonstrated impressive feats of language and tool use, but fire use "is the most human skill that we have", says Nira Alperson an archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Finding direct evidence for ancient fire use is extremely difficult and the new study is applauded by Derek Roe an archaeologist at Oxford University, UK: "Any small fact you can find is a great triumph."
Ancient hearths
The oldest indications of fire use come from Koobi Fora in Kenya where researchers found patches of discoloured sediment. But suggestions that these were 1.6-million-year-old hearths have failed to convince many researchers.
Now Alperson and colleagues have found compelling, although not conclusive, evidence that one of our ancestors was using fire 790,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov. By comparison, the oldest evidence of fire control in Europe dates from around 500,000 years ago.
The team analysed over 50,000 pieces of wood and nearly 36,000 pieces of flint from what was once probably a Homo erectus settlement on the shores of an ancient lake. Flint was examined because it was used for tool making and shows a characteristic pitting when exposed to fire.
Many of the burnt specimens were clustered in two patches, which the team believe were ancient hearths. They also point out the low proportion of burnt remains - only around four per cent of the wood and two per cent of the flint. "If a natural fire had caused it we would have expected a higher percentage to be burned," says Alperson.
Test fire
But Sally McBreaty, an anthropologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, is not convinced. She says it would have been good to see the team set up an experimental brush fire and measure what proportion of wood and flint in the undergrowth ended up being burnt.
Everyone agrees on the impact that fire would have had on our ancestors though. "We know for sure that it dramatically changed their lives," says Alperson.
Fire-starters would have been able to migrate to colder regions, drive away predators, get more energy from food by cooking it and enjoy a more cohesive social life.
However, finding out more from the site at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov may never be possible. In 1999, after the samples used in Alperson's study were collected, the local drainage authority destroyed a large chunk of the site.
Journal reference: Science (vol 304, p 725)
James Randerson
No, this is the Middle East-- it was shishkebabs (called shishliq in Israel).
Wonder if it was the Jews or the Palies?
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