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In the News, Winter 2022-23: Early Humans May Have Cooked Food 780,000 Years Ago
Evidence found at the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov archaeological site in Israel suggests that Homo erectus, an ancestor of modern humans, was cooking fish approximately 780,000 years in the past. Previously, the earliest evidence of cooking – by Homo sapiens and Neanderthals – dated back only 170,000 years.
Researchers at the Israeli site analyzed fish teeth found in an area that appears to have once contained hearths. Using X-ray powder diffraction, which measures the size of crystals in tooth enamel, they concluded that the fish were exposed to controlled temperatures below 930° F. This suggests that the fish were not prepared directly over flames but rather may have been cooked in an earthen oven. Evidence also indicates that the fish may have been consumed on site.
Learning to cook is recognized as one of the most important evolutionary milestones of our species, impacting both biological and social development. Cooking food makes it easier to digest and allows for more efficient growth of the body and brain. That this ability may have developed so much earlier than previously believed has major implications for the understanding of human evolution and history.
Sources: Schwaller F. Evidence of cooking 780,000 years ago rewrites human history. DW, November 18, 2022. dw.com/en/evidence-of-cooking-780000-years-ago-rewrites-human-history/a-63812031.
Zohar I, Alperson-Afil N, Goren-Inbar N, et al. Evidence for the cooking of fish 780,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 2016–2028 (2022). doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01910-z.
Published in the Journal of Health and Healing™
Winter 2022 – 23| Volume 46, Number 4
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