Ancient humans in the Near East used fire to smoke meat, rather than cook it, preserving it for later consumption and protecting it from animals, according to the latest research from the Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University.
Prehistory scholars have long wondered why ancient humans first adopted the use of fire as a tool. Dr. Miki Ben-Dor and Prof. Ran Barkai conducted the study, which aligns with their theory that many prehistoric developments were driven by dependence upon large animals as a source of calories at a time when the size of the animals humans hunted was in decline.
The First Fire
“The origins of fire use is a ‘burning’ topic among prehistory researchers around the world,” said Prof. Barkai in a statement. “It is generally agreed that by 400,000 years ago, fire use was common in domestic contexts—most likely for roasting meat, and perhaps also for lighting and heating.
“But there is controversy regarding the preceding million years, and various hypotheses have been put forward to explain why early humans began using fire,” he adds. “In this study, we sought to explore a new perspective on the issue.”
“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,” Dr. Ben-Dor added. “Nevertheless, at a number of early sites there are clear signs that fire was used, but without burnt bones or evidence of meat roasting.”
“We understand that early humans at that time—mostly Homo erectus—did not use fire regularly, but only occasionally, in specific places and for special purposes,” Dr. Ben-Dor added. “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. We have proposed a new hypothesis regarding that motive.”
Delving into the Fiery Past
The pair’s work consisted of a literature review encompassing all known prehistoric sites with evidence of fire use and within a date range of 1.8 million to 800,000 years ago. Only nine sites globally fit these parameters, six in Africa, two in Israel, and one in Spain. As there are no recorded observations of human behavior from such remote periods, the researchers turned to ethnographies of modern hunter-gather societies, seeking to understand how their behavior today corresponds to the evidence found at the ancient sites.
“We examined what the nine ancient sites had in common, and found that all contained large quantities of bones from large animals—mostly elephants, but also hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, and others. From previous studies, we know that these animals were extremely important to early human diets and provided most of the necessary calories,” explained Dr. Ben-Dor.
Just one elephant is enough to sustain a group of 20-30 people for at least a month. The millions of calories in such a creature would have been a “treasure” to protect and preserve. Analyzing the caloric content of smoked meat, the researchers determined that smoking offered a major advantage over cooking for preserving food for long-term consumption and energy conservation, as well as the fire’s utility in deterring scavengers from stealing it.
What Motivated Ancient Humans
“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 over time,” Prof. Barkai said. “It is likely that once fire was produced for these purposes, it was also occasionally used for cooking—at zero marginal energetic cost.”
“Such use may explain evidence of fish roasting from around 800,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov. 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, followed by their gradual disappearance and the resulting need to derive adequate energy from the exploitation of smaller animals,” he concluded.
The paper “A Bioenergetic Approach Favors the Preservation and Protection of Prey, Not Cooking, as the Drivers of Early Fire” appeared on May 15, 2025, in Frontiers in Nutrition.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.