The earliest proof of cooking shows our ancestors liked their fish well done
Humans have been cooking their food for thousands of years. In order to eat food, early humans living hundreds of thousands of years ago started to use fire
There have been many disputes over when people began to cook. Archaeologists debate whether they began preparing foods in fireplaces or just for warmth
during this period that the culinary arts were born. This is the moment that an turning point in human history. Making food easier to chew and digest contributed to our expansion across the world.
the first "definitive evidence" of cooking was by Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens 170,000 years ago, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
A scientist from the Tel Aviv University's Steinhardt Museum of Natural History wrote that pushed the date of modern humans back by more than 600,000 years.
When the banks of the Jordan River were home to a freshwater lake, a treasure trove of ancient fish fossils helped the team of researchers investigate when the first chefs began getting creative in the kitchen
It's possible to point towards cooking because the fish bones are not as strong as they could be. A colleague of Zohar's discovered burnt flints and it had previously been used as a fireplace
Most of the teeth belonged to two particular species of carp, suggesting that they were selected for their succulent meat.
A few of the carp were over 2 meters (6.5 feet) long.
Scientists use the technique called X-ray powder diffraction at the Natural History Museum in London to find out how heating changes the structure of the crystals which make up enamel
The teeth from the key area of the lake were subjected to a temperature of between 200 and 500 degrees Celsius, compared to the other fish fossils.
That's the right range for fish that's well-cooked.
The study suggested that our ancestors may have used an earth oven to cook their fish, which is unknown. Some 1.7 million years ago, Homo erectus is thought to have mastered the art of fire
"Because you can control fire for warming, that does not mean you control it for cooking, because they could have eaten the fish next to the fire," he said.
Anais Marrast, an archaeozoologist at France's National Museum of Natural History, said that human ancestors might have thrown bones in the fire.