A 300,000-Year-Old hearth has been discovered In Qesem Cave, shedding light on when humans began using fire for cooking and to build fire camps, Tel Aviv University researchers report.

It has long been established that humans first discovered fire more than a million years ago. However, up until now no evidence was discovered about when Homo Sapiens started using this fire for cooking and to build fire camps for social gatherings.

Tel Aviv University researchers recently discovered a hearth filled with ash and burnt bones in Qesem Cave, an archaeological site some 12 Kms east of Tel Aviv,  which led them to report that man started using fire for cooking and during social gatherings about 300,000 years ago, according to a press statement.

Proffessors Avi Gopher and Ran Barkai of Tel Aviv University, Dr. Ruth Shahack-Gross of the Kimmel Center for Archeological Science at the Weizmann Institute and their team have been excavating the site since 2000. The recently discovered fire pit is reportedly 6.5 feet (2 meters) in diameter at its widest point and a micro morphology of the ash layers suggests the hearth was used repeatedly over time.

The thick deposit of wood ash discovered in the center of the cave was later identified to be that of bits of bones and soil subjected to very high temperatures. The identification was made using infrared spectroscopy.

Researchers also found many flint tools in the area surrounding the hearth, suggesting these tools were used to cut animals. Flints of other shapes and sizes were also found which researchers suspect were used for other activities and recreational purposes. The discovery of a large number of burnt animal bones in the same vicinity confirmed that the fire from the hearth was used for cooking meat.

Shahack-Gross and her team also noticed that the caves were divided into various sections. This suggested that prehistoric humans also organized their living space, a concept adopted by modern humans. We allocate different spaces in our homes for different activities. A previous study by University of Colorado Denver that was conducted on Neanderthals reported similar findings. The study suggested that they were also into "interior decorating" and organized their living space like modern humans.

"These findings help us to fix an important turning point in the development of human culture -- that in which humans first began to regularly use fire both for cooking meat and as a focal point -- a sort of campfire -- for social gatherings," Shahack-Gross said in a press statement. "They also tell us something about the impressive levels of social and cognitive development of humans living some 300,000 years ago."

Qesem Cave was discovered more than a decade ago and evidence of fire and the butchered bones of big game like deer, aurochs and horse left there by the prehistoric cave dwellers, possibly up to 400,000 years ago, were discovered at this site. However, the origin of humans using fire for cooking purposes remains a debatable topic. It is also uncertain which hominin species was responsible for starting controlled fire use.

Previous discoveries made in the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa suggested human ancestors used fire at least 1 million years age. Another discovery led to speculations that the teeth of Homo erectus might have adapted to eating fire cooked food 1.9 million years ago.

Researchers also noted that they still weren't sure about who lived in the Qesem Cave and who was responsible for using fire to cook there. However, a study published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology revealed that teeth dating between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago were found in the cave. At that time too, researchers were not able to pin point whether the teeth belonged to modern humans (Homo sapiens), Neanderthals or perhaps a different species.

"The best match for these teeth are those from the Skhul and Qafzeh caves in northern Israel, which date later [to between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago] and which are generally thought to be modern humans of sorts," study researcher Avi Gopher, an archaeologist from Tel Aviv University, said in an interview with Nature at the time.

The findings of the current study were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.