Cave Campfire from Early Israel Puts Human Origins in New Light

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Humans have gathered around campfires for at least 300,000 years, says a new cave study out of Israel.

Measuring about 6.5 feet, the remnants of the fire pit were found in Qesem Cave, approximately 11 miles east of Tel Aviv.

The study, led by Ruth Shahack-Gross of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, was published in the Journal of Archaeological.

The discovery is expected to help archaeologists understand much more about the origins of human culture -- and challenges the long-held notion that modern humans and their communities were birthed in ancient Africa.

The site was filled with ash and charred bones while pieces of stone tools used for killing and slicing animals were observed a few feet away near layers of ash, an indication that the area was repeatedly used as a central meeting place.

The findings may reveal a time humans first began to regularly use fire for social functions, as well as preparing food, said Ruth Shahack-Gross of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel . She added the newly-discovered artifacts "also tell us something about the impressive levels of social and cognitive development of humans living some 300,000 years ago."

Through the years, experts have disagreed over which species of early humans first controlled fire.

Evidence found in a South African cave suggests fire was managed by humans about a million years ago, while other data seems to prove the teeth of a Homo erectus had adapted to cooked food around 900,000 thousand years earlier.

Archaeologists happened upon other traces of the Qesem Cave fire over a decade ago during the construction of a road to Tel Aviv.

Back then, researchers thought remains found in the cave -- including scattered deposits of ash, clumps of soil showing signs of high heat and remains of large animals -- were left by pre-historic cave dwellers up to 400,000 years ago.

A 2010 study into those remains raised doubts about the theory Homo sapiens originated in Africa, but the evidence was non-conclusive.