The earliest evidence of giant fish being cooked by early man has been uncovered, about 780,000 years ago

This is the earliest evidence of self-initiated cooking with fire. A global breakthrough by the Hebrew Universities, Bar Ilan and Tel Aviv in collaboration with Oranim College and the Sea and Lake Research Institute

Remains of giant fish (more than 2 meters long) uncovered at the archaeological site of the Daughters of Ya'akov Bridge indicate that the ancient man controlled fire for purposeful cooking and understood the high nutritional benefit of cooking fish before eating them

A scientific discovery by the Hebrew Universities, Tel Aviv and Bar Ilan in collaboration with the Steinhardt Museum of Nature, Oranim College and the Sea and Lakes Research Institute: the remains of giant fish from the carp family (more than 2 meters long) that were discovered at the archaeological site of the Daughters of Ya'akov Bridge indicate that the fish were cooked By prehistoric man, about 780,000 years ago. The researchers explain that cooking is defined as the ability to process food by controlling the heating temperature and includes a wide variety of methods. So far the earliest evidence of the use of fire for cooking in periods was 170,000 years ago. The question of when early man began to use fire to cook food has been a subject of scientific debate for over 100 years and now the new findings shed new light on the way to solving the mystery.

The research was conducted under the joint leadership of a team of researchers: Dr. Irit Zohar, a researcher at the Steinhardt Museum of Nature at Tel Aviv University, and the curator of the natural collections of Beit Margolin at Oranim College, Prof. Naama Goren-Anbar from the Hebrew University, who managed the excavation site, Rev. Marion Provost from the Institute of Archeology at the Hebrew University, Prof. Israel Hershkowitz, Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, Prof. Nira Alperson Epil from the Department of AI Studies and Archeology at Bar Ilan University, Dr. Jan Nayorka, from the Natural History Museum in London (England) Dr. Guy Sisme-Ventura from the Center for Seas and Lakes Research and Prof. Thomas Tutkan, from the University of Mainz, Germany. The study was published in the prestigious journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Dr. Zohar and Dr. Marion Provost Emphasize: "This research proves for the first time the great importance of fish to the diet of ancient man, to his economic stability and to human evolution. Studying the remains of the fish from the Benot Ya'akov bridge made it possible, for the first time, to reconstruct the fish society that inhabited the ancient Lake Hula and to show that in the past species of fish existed in the lake that became extinct over the years. These species included small fish (carp) that reached huge dimensions (over 2 meters in length). The large amount of remains identified as a giant pot testify to their intensive use by the ancients who developed a special cooking method. The new findings not only illustrate the importance of the fresh water bodies and the fish in them for the prehistoric man's economy, they also show that the ancient man controlled fire for purposeful cooking and understood the high nutritional benefit of cooking fish before eating them.'

that will restore carp teeth

As part of the study, the researchers focused on the jaw teeth (used to grind hard food such as shells) of fish from the carp family. These teeth were found in large quantities in the different layers of the site. Using diverse and advanced research methods, mainly studying the structure of the crystals that make up the tooth enamel (whose dimensions change due to exposure to heat), the researchers were able to prove that the fish caught in the ancient Hula Lake, near the site, were exposed to temperatures suitable for cooking and were not intentionally or spontaneously burned. To this day, the evidence of the use of fire for cooking comes from archeological sites that are more than half a million years later than the Bridge of the Daughters of Jacob and are related to the appearance of our species, Homo sapiens.

Prof. Goren-Anbar She adds that "the fact that cooking fish appears continuously, along a long sequence of settlements, indicates a continuous tradition of cooking food. This skill joins the multitude of discoveries relating to the high cognitive abilities of the illusory hunter-gatherers who operated in the ancient Hula Valley. These groups had a deep familiarity with the environment and the various resources it provides and extensive knowledge of the life cycle of plant and animal species. The skill required to cook food was an evolutionary step up because it provided an additional means of utilizing food resources optimally. It is not impossible that the cooking of the food was not limited to fish and also included the cooking of various species of animals and plants."

Prof. Hershkovitz and Dr. Zohar It is noted that the transition from eating raw food to eating cooked food has dramatic consequences on human development and behavior. Eating cooked food reduces the physical investment in breaking down and digesting food and thus allows other systems to develop, a process that also led to a change in the structure of the chewing system and the skull. This energetic change freed man from the intense occupation of searching for and breaking down raw food and created free time in which new social and behavioral systems could develop. There are those who see eating fish as a leap forward in human cognitive evolution, a central catalyst for the development of the human brain and claim that eating fish made us human. There is no doubt that components found in the fish meat, such as omega 3 fatty acid, zinc, iodine and more help in the development of the brain.

The researchers believe that the fresh water bodies, some of them in areas that dried up long ago and became an arid desert, outline the route of human migration from Africa to our regions and beyond. Not only do they provide drinking water and attract animals to them, catching fish in shallow water is a relatively simple and non-dangerous task, the nutritional benefit of which is very great. In their opinion, exploiting fish from fresh water bodies was the first step to leaving Africa. Man began to eat fish already approximately 2 million years ago, but cooking fish, as demonstrated in this study, is a real revolution in Ashli ​​cuisine and an important step in understanding the relationship between man, environment, climate, distribution and migration in the reconstruction of early human history.

The use of fire characterizes the settlement sequence at the site

It should be noted that evidence of the use of fire at the site, the earliest in Eurasia, was first identified by Prof. Nira Alferson-Apil from Bar-Ilan University. "The use of fire is a behavior that characterizes the entire sequence of settlements on the site," says Prof. Alferson, "something that affected the spatial organization of the site and the activities in it that were centered around the fire pits." Prof. Alferson's research on fire at the site was ground-breaking for its time because it showed that the use of fire began hundreds of thousands of years earlier than it was widely believed until then.

Prof. Naama Goren-Anbar She adds that the archeological site of Gesher Benot Ya'akov documents a sequence of repeated settlements, for tens of thousands of years, of groups of hunters and hunters on the edge of the ancient Hula Lake. "These groups used for their livelihood the wealth of resources provided by the ancient Hula Valley and left behind a long sequence of settlements with over twenty settlement layers. The excavations at the site revealed the material culture of the ancient hominids which included, among other things, flint, basalt and chalk vessels and their food sources which were characterized by a rich variety of plant species originating from the lake and its margins (which include, among other things, fruits, nuts and seeds) and many species of terrestrial mammals, medium and large ( including elephants)'.

Dr. Jan Nyorka, The Natural History Museum in London (England) clarifies that in this study: "We used geochemical methods to detect changes in the size of the tooth enamel crystals, as a result of exposure to different cooking temperatures. While in the fire it is easy to identify the dramatic change in the size of the enamel crystals, identifying the change resulting from cooking in a temperature range between 200 and 500 degrees is more difficult. The experiments I conducted with Dr. Zohar allowed us to identify the change caused by cooking at a low temperature. We don't know how the fish were cooked, but from the lack of evidence of exposure to high heat, it is clear to us that they were not cooked directly on the fire, nor were they thrown into it as garbage or as fuel.' 

Dr. Guy Sisama-Ventura From the Seas and Lakes Research Center and Prof. Thomas Tutkan, from the University of Mainz, Germany, were partners in the research and engaged in the analysis of the isotopic composition of oxygen and carbon in the enamel of fish teeth. According to Dr. Sisema-Ventura and Prof. Tutkan, "The isotope study is groundbreaking because it allowed us to reconstruct the hydrological conditions in the ancient lake throughout the year and, as a result, determine that the fish were not a seasonal economic resource, but that they were caught and eaten throughout the year." The fish constituted a permanent and important nutritional resource that reduced the need for seasonal migrations.'

for the scientific article

For pictures: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rnGAr3SpqYfy2XE93chBSvyIBvni3qwQ?usp=share_link

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