Turns out, early humans preferred smoked meat to cooked meat. Or they might have, according to a new theory from researchers at Tel Aviv University. Published in a paper in Frontiers in Nutrition, the theory suggests that early humans turned to fires not only to cook their meat but also to protect it from predators and scavengers, and to preserve it through smoking for longer periods of time.
“In this study, we propose a new understanding of the factors that motivated early humans to begin using fire: the need to safeguard large hunted animals from other predators and to preserve the vast quantity of meat,” said Ran Barkai, a paper author and researcher at Tel Aviv University, according to a press release.
Read More: From Growing Crops to Cooking Food, Fire Shaped Ancient Civilizations
The Human History of Fire
Humans have used fire for a long time. In fact, the traces of fire found at archeological sites suggest that human fire use started around a million years ago or more, though that use wasn’t widespread until later, around 400,000 years ago.
“For early humans, fire use was not a given, and at most archaeological sites dated earlier than 400,000 years ago, there is no evidence of the use of fire. Nevertheless, at a number of early sites, there are clear signs that fire was used,” said Miki Ben-Dor, another paper author and researcher at Tel Aviv University, according to the press release.
“Early humans at that time — mostly Homo erectus — did not use fire regularly, but only occasionally, in specific places and for special purposes.”
So, what special purposes prompted these early humans to start using fires? Many scholars have suggested that cooking promoted this early fire use, as cooked meat is easier and more energy-efficient to consume than uncooked meat. But is it possible that something else stimulated this use of fires, instead?
“The process of gathering fuel, igniting a fire, and maintaining it over time required significant effort, and they needed a compelling, energy-efficient motive to do so,” Ben-Dor added. “We have proposed a new hypothesis regarding that motive.”
Read More: How Humans’ Unique Cooking Abilities Might Have Altered Our Fate
A New Explanation for Early Fire Use
Reviewing the research on archaeological sites with early evidence of fires (around 800,000 years old and older) and comparing the types of meat consumed at the sites, the researchers estimated the energetic returns and costs of cooking and fire use. They found that the returns of cooking were not enough to offset the costs of fire use, suggesting that there was some other factor behind the fires at the sites.
The researchers say it’s possible that the early humans at these sites — nine in total, in Africa, West Asia, and Southern Europe — were not cooking with fire, but were instead saving their food from thieving animals and stretching its viability.
“Various hypotheses have been put forward to explain why early humans began using fire,” Barkai said. “The approach we propose fits well into a global theory we have been developing in recent years, which explains major prehistoric phenomena as adaptations to the hunting and consumption of large animals.”
Read More: Early Humans Didn't Follow A Diet, They Ate For Survival
Making Large Food Last
Intriguingly, all nine of the archaeological sites included bones from large animals, like elephants and hippopotamuses, indicating a possible link between early fire use and the protection and preservation of large quantities of food.
“We know that these animals were extremely important to early human diets and provided most of the necessary calories,” Ben-Dor said. “The meat and fat of a single elephant, for example, contain millions of calories, enough to feed a group of 20 [to] 30 people for a month or more.”
Rather than needing a method to cook these large amounts of meat, these early humans needed a way to prolong the availability and longevity of meat for consumption over time.
“A hunted elephant or hippopotamus was thus a real treasure — a kind of meat and fat ‘bank’ that needed to be protected and preserved for many days,” Ben-Dor added. “It was coveted not only by predators but also by bacteria” — two separate threats that humans may have solved with fire.
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Frontiers In Nutrition. A Bioenergetic Approach Favors the Preservation and Protection of Prey, Not Cooking, as the Drivers of Early Fire
Sam Walters is a journalist covering archaeology, paleontology, ecology, and evolution for Discover, along with an assortment of other topics. Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
