Prehistoric humans actually cooked with fire 780,000 years ago

Scholars from leading universities in Israel Discover the first evidence of the controlled use of fire to cook food. Select the team Remains of ancient giant carp cooked by humans – extinct human ancestors.

The discovery was reported in a study published Monday 14 in the Scientific Journal nature and its evolution🇧🇷 According to scientists, prehistoric humans used fire for cooking 600,000 years earlier than previously thought. Even then, the first evidence of cooking dates back nearly 170,000 years.

The team reached this conclusion after analyzing fish teeth found at the archaeological site of Gesher Binot Ya’ov in northern Israel. The find contained no bones, which suggests that it was exposed to fire to cook it.

The scientists used geochemical methods to identify changes in crystal size in the enamel of carp’s teeth that indicate exposure to different cooking temperatures. “The fact that fish cooking is evident during such a long and uninterrupted period of settlement at the site indicates an ongoing tradition of cooking,” says paleoanthropologist Nima Gorin-Inbar.

According to the specialist, the discovery shows that groups of humans who acted as hunter-gatherers had extensive knowledge of the benefits of cooking through the use of fire.

“Acquisition of the skill to cook with fire represents a major evolutionary advance, as it provides an additional means of optimizing the use of available food resources,” says Nehme. “It is also possible that the cuisine was not limited to fish, but also included various kinds of animals and plants.”

The transition from eating raw food to cooked food has important implications for human development and behaviour. Through fire, humans were able to reduce their physical energy needed to break down and digest food, which allowed other physical systems in the human body to develop. In addition, cooking caused changes in the structure of the jaw and skull of the species.