300,000 year old hearth used for cooking and social gatherings discovered in Israel

Pretty interesting discovery. Fragments of flint tools and burnt animal bones were also found around the hearth.

What were these pre-Homo sapiens like? What would they have been talking about?

Also in and around the area were large numbers of burnt animal bones - further evidence for repeated fire use for cooking meat. Shahack-Gross and her colleagues have shown that this organization of various "household" activities into different parts of the cave points to an organization of space - and a thus kind of social order - that is typical of modern humans.

She said that these findings help them to fix an important turning point in the human culture development - that in which humans first began to regularly use fire both for cooking meat and as a focal point - for social gatherings.

www.business-standard.com...

edit on 28-1-2014 by PhotonEffect because: (no reason given)

reply to post by PhotonEffect


"Man, I hate the chief. You wouldn't believe what he made me do today. But enough about me, how're the wife and kids?"

Either that or, "urgh."

Phage
reply to post by PhotonEffect

 

Either that or, "urgh."

edit on 1/28/2014 by Phage because: (no reason given)

Yeah, or "pass the salt will ya"

reply to post by PhotonEffect


Many thanks for the find S&F! Amazing to think of just how long 300,000 Years ago actually is.

reply to post by PhotonEffect


Extremely awesome Every little nugget of our past that we uncover makes us rethink our ancestors in a much more "human" light. It's the little stuff like cooking habits that remind us that they were just as human then as we are now. It really irritates me when people brush aside ancient man like they were grunting imbeciles in the cave. Primitive doesn't equal stupid.

And may I veer off topic a quick second and say how much I love your avatar

And there is also the chance, ever how small, that they were discussing how to lift a 4 ton perfectly cut rock into the wall they were constructing......

reply to post by teslahowitzer

They lived in a cave. They didn't need to build any walls.
With 4 ton stones or otherwise.

reply to post by PhotonEffect


and how did they determine this find is 300,000 years old?

reply to post by Phage


Your not gonna give me one mm are you? just a fleeting glimpse of a fantasy maybe, maybe not....I still stand firm that earth's past is not as we are told, too many unexplained structures, this was my humor, should have said "arghh"....

reply to post by UxoriousMagnus

230Th/234U dating on speleothems in the cave identifies that they were occupied from before 382,000 BP possible as early as oxygen isotope stage 11 (420 to 360 kya). The cave occupation ended before 152,000 years ago, possibly shortly after 207,000 years ago.[3]

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Nyiah

Agreed.

Also, no mention of human bones being burned. Guess they weren't eating their neighbors.

Phage
reply to post by UxoriousMagnus

 

230Th/234U dating on speleothems in the cave identifies that they were occupied from before 382,000 BP possible as early as oxygen isotope stage 11 (420 to 360 kya). The cave occupation ended before 152,000 years ago, possibly shortly after 207,000 years ago.[3]

en.wikipedia.org...

Phage...forgive the dumb question here...but I still don't get it. speleothems have nothing to do with the caves being occupied or not so how can they determine the date they were occupied?

impossible since the world is only 4000 years old!
all nonsense aside, i'm always happy to hear about these kinds of discoveries.
Anything that can connect us with the past is always welcome.
thanks for the post OP!

reply to post by UxoriousMagnus

The dated speleothems would coincide with the strata in which the artifacts (and fire remnants) were found. They formed at the same time the strata were laid down and can therefore be used to date the artifacts.

Phage
reply to post by UxoriousMagnus

 

The dated speleothems would coincide with the strata in which the artifacts (and fire remnants) were found. They formed at the same time the strata were laid down and can therefore be used to date the artifacts.

Hi Phage.
I am a pretty simple guy and have trouble understanding you at times because I do not know what a lot of words mean (Speleothems, strata)
Not that you should feel obligated but it would be of great assistance to me if you could possibly provide alternate words or even explain a bit more in brief, the way you see it of course. You sound really intelligent and I am a bit too lazy to go looking up that stuff myself (probably why I am simple)
Anyway I am sure when I do understand your unique lingo I will learn a lot.

reply to post by TheDualityExperience

First, speleothem is sort of a generic term for things like stalagmites that form in caves. It can be determined when they formed by the amounts of slightly radioactive materials within them.

Now, over time stuff (dust, dirt, crud) builds up on the floor of the cave, getting deeper and deeper. If a speleothem which is 300,000 years old is covered up by crud it must mean that the crud (and everything in that same layer of crud) is less than 300,000 years old. But if stone tools and bits of charcoal are found in the same layer of crud as that speleothem, it must mean that those tools and charcoal were left there at the same time that the speleothem formed. If they are deeper, then they are older.

Does that help?
And thanks for the compliment.

Phage
reply to post by TheDualityExperience

 

First, speleothem is sort of a generic term for things like stalagmites that form in caves. It can be determined when they formed by the amounts of slightly radioactive materials within them.

Now, over time stuff (dust, dirt, crud) builds up on the floor of the cave, getting deeper and deeper. If a speleothem which is 300,000 years old is covered up by crud it must mean that the crud (and everything in that same layer of crud) is less than 300,000 years old. But if stone tools and bits of charcoal are found in the same layer of crud as that speleothem, it must mean that those tools and charcoal were left there at the same time that the speleothem formed. If they are deeper, then they are older.

Does that help?
And thanks for the compliment.

edit on 1/28/2014 by Phage because: (no reason given)

That was perfect!
Thank you Phage

Thanks, Interesting. I would like a picture though!

I find such places fascinating, you might like Skara Brae if you didn't already know about it, not as old perhaps but I love the way there are stone cupboards and shelves, neat neolithics, yay!

I like your avatar, the guys at the Avatar thread might be able to make it into one image for you.

www.orkneyjar.com...

Here's a picture:

www.ibtimes.co.uk...

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


Thanks for posting a picture of the hearth. I was trying to do this last night on my Ipad but it wasn't working out so well...
I hadn't heard about Skara Brae before. Looks like a very interesting site. Very well laid out and organized seeming...

You can almost picture what it would've been like back then