Ancient Fire Secrets Revealed: The Real Reason Prehistoric Humans Mastered Flames Will Astonish You
So, picture this: our ancient ancestors weren’t just huddled around the fire telling stories or roasting the day’s catch because they were hungry. Nope, turns out they were the original meat preservation experts—using fire not to cook, but to smoke and stash leftover giant beast meat for later snacking. Wild, right? Scientists at Tel Aviv University cracked open this prehistoric mystery after studying ancient animal bones across Israel, Spain, and Africa, concluding early humans kinda invented barbecue long before they bothered with cooking. Imagine having the patience and savvy to maintain a fire primarily as a giant prehistoric meat locker, all while scaring off scavengers and keeping those precious calories safe. Stay with me—this flips the script on how we thought fire stepped into human life and gives us a fresh grill on survival tactics from 1.8 million years ago. Intrigued yet? LEARN MORE
After studying animal bones found at sites in Israel, Spain, and Africa that hold some of the earliest evidence of fire, scientists from Tel Aviv University concluded that our ancestors first used fire to preserve meat and ward off scavengers.

Tel Aviv UniversityResearcher Ran Barkai holds remains from a prehistoric elephant found at the La Polledrara site in Italy.
Fire is one of the oldest tools in humanity’s toolbox. It’s obviously both a fundamental source of heat and a time-tested way to cook food. But how and why exactly humans came to control fire is still a somewhat unclear picture.
New research from Tel Aviv University, however, proposes that humans didn’t learn how to control fire in order to cook food, but for another reason instead.
Post Comment