For paleo fans: Fire was used earlier than people thought

[Guest guest]

-- Heidi Jean

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12768-2004May9.html?referrer=emai\

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Late last month, a team of Israeli archaeologists reported the earliest evidence

yet found of controlled fire on the Eurasian land mass -- three clusters of

cracked and blackened flint chips and bits of charcoal deposited 790,000 years

ago at a campsite on what is today the banks of the Jordan River.

The site -- in northern Israel near the Lebanese border -- lies at the

geographical crossroads between Africa and Eurasia, a logical stopping place for

fire-bearing human ancestors on their way out of Africa and into colder northern

climates. Although many researchers believe that fire was first tamed in Africa,

the new research is the most powerful evidence yet found of fire being harnessed

before the advent of modern humans.

" We can reconstruct the habitat, " said archaeologist Naama Goren-Inbar, leader

of the Hebrew University team that excavated the site at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov.

" We have bones of elephant, rhino, hippo and small things. There are very clear

marks showing that the people cut the meat and ate steaks and marrow. " Her

team's findings were reported in the journal Science.