OUR early ancestors used fire to keep warm, scare away predators and cook food as long as 790,000 years ago. So claim archaeologists who have unearthed scorched wood and flint fragments at a hominid settlement on the banks of the river Jordan in Israel.
The evidence, is compelling, not conclusive. But it is more convincing than supposed vestiges of fire use in Africa that suggest our forbears began making fires 1.6 million years ago.
The precise moment our ancestors discovered fire occupies an iconic place in the popular imagination. And as chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, continue to show…
