The advent of fire represents a pivotal juncture in humanity’s developmental trajectory, with the foundational motivations for its earliest employments subject to ongoing scholarly debate. While culinary applications are frequently posited as the principal impetus, a cadre of investigators from Tel Aviv University suggests that the preservation of meat and fat, alongside safeguarding against predatory threats, constituted more probable initial drivers for fire utilization by Homo erectus during the Lower Paleolithic epoch (spanning from 1.9 to 0.78 million years ago).
Miki Ben-Dor and Ran Barkai establish a connection between rudimentary fire engagement and subsistence strategies, underscoring the critical nutritional value of protein and lipids derived from substantial game during the Lower Paleolithic era. Their work casts doubt on the prevailing notion that cooking was the paramount factor in the evolution of human sustenance, potentially reshaping our comprehension of dietary adaptations in Homo erectus.
“The genesis of fire engagement is a subject of intense interest among prehistoric researchers globally,” remarked Professor Ran Barkai of Tel Aviv University, a co-author of the investigation.
“There is a general consensus that by 400,000 years ago, the manipulation of fire was commonplace in domestic settings, predominantly for the preparation of animal flesh via roasting, and conceivably also for illumination and ambient warmth.”
“However, a degree of contention exists concerning the preceding million-year span, during which various conceptual frameworks have been proposed to elucidate the initial adoption of fire by early hominins.”
“Within the scope of this inquiry, we aimed to explore an alternative perspective on this fundamental question.”
“For nascent human populations, the deployment of fire was not a default behavior. At the majority of archaeological sites predating 400,000 years ago, definitive evidence of fire usage remains absent,” stated Dr. Miki Ben-Dor from Tel Aviv University, the primary author of the research.
“Nevertheless, certain early locales exhibit unambiguous indications of fire’s application, yet without concomitant evidence of charred osseous remains or indications of meat that had undergone roasting.”
“Our interpretation is that early hominins of that period, predominantly Homo erectus, did not utilize fire on a consistent basis, but rather intermittently, within specific contexts and for defined objectives.”
“The undertaking of procuring fuel, initiating combustion, and sustaining a flame necessitated considerable exertion, thereby demanding a persuasive and energetically efficient rationale to justify such efforts.”
“We have put forth a novel hypothesis concerning this underlying motive.”
In their scholarly pursuit, the originating authors conducted a comprehensive review of extant literature pertaining to all documented prehistoric sites dating between 1.8 million and 800,000 years ago where evidence of fire utilization has been identified.
Globally, nine such locations have been identified, inclusive of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov and Evron Quarry situated in Israel, alongside six sites in Africa and one in Spain.
Furthermore, their analysis incorporated insights gleaned from ethnographic studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer communities, drawing parallels between their observable behaviors and the environmental conditions that characterized ancient landscapes.
“We meticulously examined the commonalities among these nine ancient sites and discovered that all contained substantial collections of skeletal remains from large fauna – predominantly elephants, but also rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, and others,” Dr. Ben-Dor elucidated.
“Previous investigations have established the profound significance of these creatures in the dietary schema of early humans, supplying the vast majority of requisite caloric intake.”
“For instance, the flesh and fat derived from a single elephant can yield millions of calories, sufficient to sustain a collective of 20-30 individuals for an extended duration, potentially exceeding a month.”
“Consequently, the successful hunting of an elephant or hippopotamus represented a veritable bounty – a reservoir of meat and fat that necessitated vigilant protection and extended preservation, not solely from predatory rivals but also from microbial decomposition.”
An exhaustive assessment of the collective findings, coupled with quantitative estimations of the considerable energetic advantages conferred by the preservation of meat and fat, led the researchers to an unprecedented conclusion: fire fulfilled two indispensable functions for early hominins. The first was to deter other predators and scavengers from appropriating this valuable resource. The second was to facilitate the preservation of the meat through smoking and desiccation, thereby averting spoilage and rendering it consumable over prolonged periods.
“In the present study, we advocate for a revised understanding of the factors that prompted early humans to commence the use of fire: namely, the imperative to safeguard large game from competing predators and to ensure the long-term conservation of substantial meat provisions,” Professor Barkai articulated.
“It is plausible that once fire was mastered for these purposes, its occasional application for cooking emerged with no additional energetic burden.”
“Such a scenario could account for the discernible evidence of fish incineration dating back to approximately 800,000 years ago, as observed at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov.”
“The conceptual framework we propose harmonizes seamlessly with a broader theoretical model we have been cultivating in recent years, which posits that principal prehistoric developments were driven by adaptations to the hunting and ingestion of large fauna, followed by their eventual decline and the consequent necessity to secure adequate sustenance from the exploitation of smaller animal species.”
The outcomes of this research have been disseminated in the esteemed journal Frontiers in Nutrition.
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Miki Ben-Dor & Ran Barkai. 2025. A bioenergetic approach favors the preservation and protection of prey, not cooking, as the drivers of early fire. Front. Nutr 12; doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1585182
