A general view of the excavations at the Daughters of Ya'akov site. Photo: The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The first evidence of man's use of fire in Eurasia about 790 thousand years ago emerges from excavations carried out in Israel by the Institute of Archeology of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
The source of the evidence is in seven seasons of excavations at the Bnot Ya'akov Bridge site, which is located about three kilometers south of the Hula Valley in the Jordan River and on both banks. According to Prof. Naama Goren-Anbar, the head of the Institute of Archeology and the director of the excavations at the Bnot Ya'akov Bridge, this is the best evidence found so far of the human use of fire during the Illusory civilization (from approximately 1.8 million years to 250 thousand years ago).
An article on the findings of the excavations will be published on April 29 in the prestigious scientific journal Science. The article enumerates the archaeological finds from the excavations at the site that testify to the use of fire and include burnt chips of flint, wood, cows and seeds. These burnt items, including wild olive, wild vine and wild barley, indicate that the hominids, the ancestors of man, knew how to control fire and use it. Concentrations of burned flint chips suggest the remains of man-made hearths.
There is evidence of the use of fire in Africa, says Prof. Naama Goren-Anbar, but the findings from the Bnot Yaakov Bridge are the earliest uncovered in Eurasia and are of higher quality than some of the evidence in Africa. The water-soaked lake environment in the Bnot Ya'akov Bridge area provided unique conditions for the preservation of the prehistoric findings, Goren-Anbar explains.
The control of fire was a turning point in the way of life of the primitive man and a revolutionary stage in the evolution of the human race. From the moment of its "domestication", fire could be used by man for protection from predators, for warmth and for lighting. Thus a new range of food sources became available and cooking and grilling became possible.
Burnt findings were uncovered throughout the sequence of the different layers of the excavations at the Daughters of Ya'akov Bridge site and indicate that since the ancient man of the place acquired the skill to use fire, it was used by the generations after him.
