Tiszafüred Majoroshalom B54. sír (MNMKK MNM AD HaGy Kovács Tibor hagyatéka). A hivatkozás hozzá: Kovács 1995, Abb. 1/A, 2-3 és Dani János et al. 2025 Kovács, T (1995) Auf Mitteleuropa weisende Beziehungen einiger Waffenfunde aus dem östlichen Karpatenbecken. In Hänsel, B (Hrsg.), Handel, Tausch und Verker im bronze- und früheisenzeitlichen Südosteuropa. Prähistorische Archäologie in Südosteuropa 11. Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, München-Berlin, 173–185. és Dani J, Horváth A, Gémes A, Fülöp K, Szeniczey T, Tarbay JG, et al. New radiocarbon dates from the Bronze Age Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom site (Eastern Hungary). Radiocarbon. 2025;67(2):428–40. doi:10.1017/RDC.2024.123
Credit: Kovács 1995, Abb. 1/A, 2-3 és Dani János et al. 2025
The bioarchaeological investigation of the Bronze Age cemetery of Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom has shed new light on an important period in Central European history. An international research team – led by Tamás Hajdu, associate professor at the Department of Anthropology at ELTE and Claudio Cavazzuti, senior assistant professor at the University of Bologna, has shown that around 1500 BC, radical changes occurred in people’s lives: they ate and lived differently, and the social system was also reorganized.
The multidisciplinary research was based on the Bronze Age cemetery excavated at Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom, which was used both in the Middle Bronze Age (Füzesabony culture) and in the Late Bronze Age (Tumulus culture). These finds allowed the researchers to compare the subsistence strategies before and after the change of era.
The research team, led by Tamás Hajdu and supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office, sought to answer whether the spread of the Tumulus culture meant the arrival of new groups, or whether the autochtonous people continued their lives, and only the material culture changed. In addition, they also examined whether the archaeologically observed settlement changes around 1500 BC indicate a change in lifestyle: whether people began to follow a lifestyle involving mainly animal husbandry and frequent migration instead of settled farming.
The most important results of the research:
Diet changed: According to nitrogen stable isotope studies, people's food consumption was much more diverse during the Middle Bronze Age, and differences within society were also more evident in their diet - especially in access to animal proteins. This difference decreased in the Late Bronze Age, and the diet became more uniform but poorer.
Broomcorn millet was introduced: According to carbon isotope analyses, the consumption of millet, a plant that can be grown quickly and has a high energy content, began at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. The data from the Tiszafüred Bronze Age cemetery indicate the earliest known consumption of millet in Europe.
Mobility decreased: According to the results of strontium isotope investigations, the populations of the Middle and Late Bronze Age Tiszafüred had different mobility patterns. In the Late Bronze Age, fewer immigrants were identified and they arrived from different migration source than before. While in the Middle Bronze Age, beside the locals, several immigrants were observed among the people living in Tiszafüred, and they most likely did not come from too far away (e.g. the Upper Tisza region, the northern part of the Carpathians), while in the Late Bronze Age, the settlers may have come from other geographical regions (e.g. Transdanubia or the Southern Carpathians). Based on radiocarbon dating, immigration began as early as the 1500s BC, which supports that the communities living further west had indeed reached the Great Hungarian Plain at the time of the appearance of the Tumulus culture.
Social relations changed: At the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, the long time-used tell-settlements were abandoned and people lived in less centralized settlement networks. This change created a looser, less structured social system – which is also reflected in dietary habits. According to microremains found in dental calculi and the aforementioned isotopic analyses, significantly less animal protein was consumed during this period than before, which contradicts the previous idea that people belonging to the Tumulus culture were mainly engaged in animal husbandry.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, clearly refutes the previous idea that Tumulus culture people were mostly pastoralists. The research results show that the changes associated with the emergence of the Tumulus culture (around 1500 BC) – such as the observed differences in people's lifestyles, burial customs and settlements – can only be truly understood if traditional archaeological and anthropological studies are combined with modern bioarchaeological analyses.
A Cambridge criminologist has uncovered new evidence in the killing of a priest, John Forde, who had his throat cut on a busy London street almost seven centuries ago.
The case is among hundreds catalogued by the Medieval Murder Maps project at Cambridge University’s Institute of Criminology, a database of unnatural death in England during the 14th century. This one, however, has a few twists.
Records traced by Prof Manuel Eisner suggest that John Forde’s slaying in 1337 was a revenge killing orchestrated by a noblewoman ordered to enact years of degrading penance after the Archbishop of Canterbury discovered the clergyman was her lover – possibly from Forde himself.
A letter written by the Archbishop five years earlier accuses the aristocrat Ela Fitzpayne of a wide variety of adultery, including with the priest John Forde, and demands she undertake barefoot walks of shame across Salisbury Cathedral.
Another record found by Eisner shows that, around the time of these allegations, Ela Fitzpayne conspired with her husband and John Forde to lead a gang of extortionists that raided a church priory, breaking into buildings and holding livestock to ransom.
While explicit connections remain unclear, the records suggest that John Forde went from being in Ela Fitzpayne’s crime gang and possibly her bed, to a player in her denouncement by the church, and, years later, a murder victim – with one of Forde’s killers recognised as Ela Fitzpayne’s brother, and two others her recent servants.
Eisner says the brazen murder of Forde near St Paul’s Cathedral, as early evening crowds milled about, was perhaps a brutal show of strength: reminding the clergy of the power of the nobility, and that Ela Fitzpayne doesn’t forget or forgive.
Digital copies of the coroner report and letters are published together for the first time on the University’s website. A new paper on the Medieval Murder Maps is published in Criminal Law Forum, and a series of podcasts are available, with each episode taking an in-depth look at an individual case, including that of Forde and Fitzpayne.
“We are looking at a murder commissioned by a leading figure of the English aristocracy. It is planned and cold-blooded, with a family member and close associates carrying it out, all of which suggests a revenge motive,” said Eisner.
“Attempts to publicly humiliate Ela Fitzpayne may have been part of a political game, as the church used morality to stamp its authority on the nobility, with John Forde caught between masters,” he said.
“Taken together, these records suggest a tale of shakedowns, sex and vengeance that expose tensions between the church and England’s elites, culminating in a mafia-style assassination of a fallen man of god by a gang of medieval hitmen.”
Eisner leads the Medieval Murder Maps project, a digital resource that plots crime scenes based on translations of the coroners’ rolls, mainly from the 14th century. The project has produced maps for London, Oxford and York to date.
Written in Latin, the rolls are records of sudden or suspicious deaths as investigated by a jury of local men called together by the coroner to establish facts and reach a verdict – a cornerstone of medieval justice.
Most juries consisted of a dozen men, some of whom were witnesses. The jury for Forde’s killing totalled 33 men – one of the highest in all murders mapped by the project, and a sign that the sheriff and coroner considered this a high-profile case.
Westcheap – a homicide ‘hotspot’
The jury record that John Forde had been walking up Cheapside after vespers but before sunset on Friday 3rd May 1337 when a fellow priest, Hasculph Neville, distracted Ford with “pleasant conversation”.
As they approached St Paul’s, four other men, including Hugh Lovell, brother of Ela Fitzpayne, attacked Forde. Lovell used a 12-inch dagger to open Forde’s throat, while two other men – Hugh Colne and John Strong, who, until recently, had worked for the Fitzpaynes – stabbed Forde in the belly.
The jury, including a rosary-maker and a hatmaker, identified all assassins but claimed ignorance of their whereabouts. They also noted the Fitzpaynes were in a longstanding feud with Forde.
“Despite naming the killers and clear knowledge of the instigator, when it comes to pursuing the perpetrators the jury turn a blind eye,” said Eisner.
“A household of the highest nobility, and apparently no one knows where they are to bring them to trial. They claim Ela’s brother has no belongings to confiscate. All implausible. This was typical of the class-based justice of the day.”
Former Fitzpayne servant Colne was eventually indicted for the crime five years later in 1342, and imprisoned in Newgate – the only charge brought in the case.
The area of Westcheap, where Forde was slain, was London’s most prominent medieval homicide “hotspot”, according to the latest paper from the research project.
Home to numerous markets, taverns and alehouses, and many powerful guilds, such as the goldsmiths and saddlers, it was a centre of trade and revelry, where events could get out of hand.
Common triggers for violence in Westcheap included quarrels between merchants or artisans, and group fights between guild apprentices akin to turf wars between gangs.
Records also show that the area hosted several premeditated revenge killings, such as the one that ended John Forde. “Westcheap was a site for displays of civic justice, such as the pillory or stocks,” said Eisner. “As a setting for public rituals of punishment, this appears to have included extrajudicial killings.”
The Archbishop’s letters
Looking into the Forde case, Eisner found a letter from Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Mepham to the Bishop of Winchester, sent in January 1332, claiming Ela Fitzpayne conducted sexual liaisons with ‘‘knights and others, single and married, and even with clerics in holy orders’’.
Punishment for her behaviour included a ban on wearing gold, pearls or precious stones, and large sums to be paid to monastic orders and donated to the poor.
The most public penance was a walk of shame in bare feet the length of Salisbury Cathedral – the longest nave in England – carrying a four-pound wax candle to the altar, which Fitzpayne was told she must do every autumn for seven years.
The letter indicates that Fitzpayne, led by a “spirit of pride” and the devil, is refusing, and has abandoned her husband, with a further letter sent in April claiming Ela is hiding in Rotherhithe – then in the Diocese of Winchester – and is excommunicated.
Only one alleged lover is named in the letters, John Forde, suggesting his involvement in alerting the Archbishop. At the time, Forde was the rector of the church of Okeford Fitzpaine, a village on the Fitzpayne family’s Dorset estate.
“The archbishop imposed heavy, shameful public penance on Ela, which she seems not to have complied with, but may have sparked a thirst for vengeance,” said Eisner. “Not least as John Forde appears to have escaped punishment by the church.”
Priory raiders
Another record, from March of 1322, reveals Ela Fitzpayne and John Ford were both indicted by a Royal Commission. The pair had raided a Benedictine priory the previous year, along with the knight Sir Robert Fitzpayne – Ela’s husband and lord of Stogursey, the nearby castle.
The crew smashed priory gates and buildings, felled trees and robbed the quarry, seizing up to 18 oxen, along with 30 pigs and some 200 sheep and lambs, and driving them back to the castle.
Despite its location, the priory was an outpost of a French abbey. This was a time of increasing animosity between France and England, with recently crowned King Edward III working on a claim to the French throne. By 1337, when Forde is murdered, the Hundred Years’ War was beginning.
Ford’s parish was around fifty miles from Stogursey. “Ela would have visited Okeford, and Forde may have spent significant time at the castle,” said Eisner. He suggests that Forde colluded with the Fitzpaynes to take advantage of diplomatic tensions by raiding the priory.
“John Forde may have had split loyalties,” said Eisner. “One to the Fitzpayne family, who were likely patrons of his church and granted him the position. And the other to the bishops who had authority over him as a clergy member.”
“We know that Archbishop Mepham was keen to enforce moral discipline among the gentry and nobility, and act against those who displayed moral failings,” said Eisner.
“Taking part in the raid would have shown Forde’s loyalty to the Fitzpaynes rather than the church, which would not have gone down well with the Archbishop.”
Ford may have confessed his liaison with Ela, perhaps under pressure following the raid. The Archbishop then weaponised sexual slander to pronounce humiliating punishment on a high-ranking noblewoman who defied the moral authority of the church.
“Public humiliation can have poisonous effects, breeding hatred and revenge in humans both today and in the distant past,” said Eisner.
“Feeling humiliated motivates wars, extremism, mass killings, and here it's probably a motivation for assassination. Humiliation creates emotions of anger and shame in the short term. Over time this can harden into a desire for violence.”
The Archbishop dies in 1333, but Ela Fitzpayne waits a further four years before taking revenge on the betrayer John Forde, using her brother and other associates to cut him down in the shadow of St. Paul’s as the crowds watched.
“The public execution style of Forde’s killing, in front of crowds in broad daylight, is similar to the political killings we see now in countries like Russia or Mexico. It’s designed to be a reminder of who is in control,” said Eisner.
“Where rule of law is weak, we see killings committed by the highest ranks in society, who will take power into their own hands, whether it's today or seven centuries ago.”
Interestingly, Eisner points out there is no evidence of acrimony between Ela and Robert Fitzpayne – a baron and early parliamentarian, and Ela’s second husband. Robert dies in 1354 still married to Ela, who then inherited all his property.
Added Eisner: “A woman in 14th century England who raided priories, openly defied the Archbishop of Canterbury, and planned the assassination of a priest. Ela Fitzpayne appears to have been many things, including an extraordinary person.”
The new study combines ancient DNA analysis with archaeological and linguistic findings. Together, they paint a vivid picture of the pre-colonial societies that once inhabited the country's coastal regions. Illustration by Papua New Guinean artist Arison Kul.
2.500 years of human history in Papua New Guinea: The first ancient genomes, dietary isotopes and plant microfossils from Papua New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago provide direct genetic evidence that refines our understanding of early dispersals and population interactions in the Pacific.
Distinct interactionspheres in the past and present: The study found that 2,000 years ago, different cultural and genetic groups inhabited the region for extended periods without mixing. The mosaic of cultures and languages today perhaps emerged 650 years ago, when networks reorganized after an environmentally challenging period. The new findings shed light on the complex settlement history and regional divergence among ancient communities.
Interdisciplinary approach: Combining ancient DNA, archaeology, and linguistics provides a more complete picture of how genetics, culture and environment influenced the rich diversity of Pacific societies.
Combining ancient DNA with dietary evidence and linguistics, the study paints a vivid picture of the pre-colonial coastal communities that once thrived in these lands. New Guinea, settled over 50,000 years ago, served as a vital launch point for early seafaring journeys into the wider Pacific—an epic chapter in human history marked by extraordinary navigational feats.
The Lapita cultural complex and early Pacific pioneers
Roughly 3,000 years ago, the Bismarck Archipelago became the cradle of the Lapita cultural complex, whose seafaring peoples, renowned for their intricate pottery and horticultural practices, and embarked on voyages that would reach as far as Vanuatu, Tonga, and Samoa. Yet until now, the genomic legacy of these early Pacific pioneers—and the islands they first called home—had remained unexplored.
"Our findings represent a significant milestone in our understanding of the genetic history of Papua New Guinea," says Dylan Gaffney, Archaeologist and co-author of the study. "For the first time, we have direct genetic evidence from ancient individuals, allowing us to refine our understanding of the Pacific past."
Co-existence in the Bismarck Archipelago
One of the study's most striking findings is the presence of individuals with completely Papuan genetic signatures on the island of Watom in the Bismarck Archipelago, where missionaries found the very first Lapita-style pottery in the early 20th century. The individuals excavated on the island are all younger than evidence for the arrival of the Lapita Cultural Complex. One of these individuals additionally displays a rare case of cultural cranial modification, suggesting the co-occupation of the island by genetically and culturally different groups.
Delayed mixing
The study also highlights the influence of migrations and interactions on the genetic makeup of ancient communities. From around 2100 years before present, the genetic profiles of individuals show varying degrees of genetic contributions associated with the arrival of the Austronesian expansion.
"Our analysis reveals a fascinating picture of the earliest encounters in the Bismarck Archipelago," explains Co-lead author Rebecca Kinaston. "Despite the co-occupation, it seems the different groups didn't mix for a long time, which is quite unusual for human encounters."
The delay in intermarriage and the presence of people with Papuan ancestry inform on a debated matter in Pacific human history: Did the first settlers in the remote islands of Western Remote Oceania arrive unmixed and, followed by people from New Guinea, mix on the islands? The new findings support previous studies, suggesting this is a likely scenario, and informing on the seafaring capabilities of Papuan ancestors.
Settlement of the Mariana Islands
One individual adds resolution to questions on the settlement of the Mariana Islands to the north of Papua New Guinea. Their genetic profile suggests the Mariana Islands were likely settled from Island Southeast Asia. This route, which required sailing against prevailing winds and currents, excludes the easier passage from islands northeast of New Guinea. "Despite some uncertainty due to a lack of ancient samples from the Philippines and Taiwan, our findings highlight the remarkable navigation skills of the early settlers of the Mariana Islands," says Cosimo Posth, one of the study's authors.
The analysis of two geographically close communities inhabiting the South Coast of Papua New Guinea between 500 and 150 years ago proved to be particularly interesting. Surprisingly, their ancestries started diverging 650 years ago, despite the absence of geographical borders. This divergence suggests the communities were shaped by distinct interaction spheres and cultural influences, with implications for our understanding of ancient trade networks and social dynamics.
Role of the environment in cultural diversification
"Our research highlights the intricate interplay between genetics, culture, and environment in shaping human history," says Johannes Krause, Director at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. "The genetic split coincides with a time of increased settlement activity and the emergence of regional trade networks after a climatically challenging period and highlights the role environmental factors might play in cultural diversification."
The recovery of ancient DNA from Papua New Guinea represents a remarkable feat, considering the challenges posed by the region's climate and terrain. The hot and humid tropical climates are detrimental to the preservation of organic material, including DNA. At the same time, multiple colonial invasions impacted these regions' cultural, genetic, and linguistic landscape. Investigating Papua New Guinea's human history through ancient genomes offers a glimpse into the hidden past of this culturally diverse and historically rich region.
Interdisciplinary approach
"This study underscores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in unraveling the mysteries of human history," concludes lead-author Kathrin Nägele. "By combining archaeological data with cutting-edge genetic analysis and considering oral traditions, we can reconstruct a more comprehensive picture of our shared past."
The publication of these ancient genomes marks a significant step forward in our understanding of the genetic diversity and historical dynamics of Papua New Guinea. It invites further exploration and investigation, promising new revelations about the origins of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the diverse communities in the Pacific region.
For this study, writing styles in digitized manuscripts were analyzed using BiNet, a previously developed deep neural network for detection of handwritten ink-trace patterns. By combining writing styles with carbon-14 dates of manuscripts using artificial intelligence, the date-prediction model Enoch is able to produce an accurate date for the manuscript.
Since their discovery, the historically and biblically hugely important Dead Sea Scrolls have transformed our understanding of Jewish and Christian origins. However, while the general date of the scrolls is from the third century BCE until the second century CE, individual manuscripts thus far could not be securely dated. Now, by combining radiocarbon dating, palaeography, and artificial intelligence, an international team of researchers led by the University of Groningen has developed a date-prediction model, called Enoch, that provides much more accurate date estimates for individual manuscripts on empirical grounds. Using this model, the researchers demonstrate that many Dead Sea Scrolls are older than previously thought. And for the first time, they establish that two biblical scroll fragments come from the time of their presumed biblical authors. They presented their results in the journal PLOS One on 4 June.
Until now, the dating of individual manuscripts was mostly based on palaeography–the study of ancient handwriting–alone. However, the traditional palaeographic model has no solid empirical foundation. For most Dead Sea Scrolls, a calendar date is not known, and there are no other date-bearing manuscripts from the time period available for palaeographic comparison. Between the few date-bearing manuscripts in Aramaic/Hebrew from the fifth–fourth centuries BCE and the late first and early second century CE a gap is present that prevents accurate dating of the more than one thousand scrolls and fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls collection.
Digitized manuscripts
This gap is now closed by researchers in the ERC project The Hands That Wrote the Bible by combining radiocarbon dates from 24 scrolls samples, in combination with palaeographic analysis using a machine-learning-based model applying a Bayesian ridge regression method. The new radiocarbon dates are reliable, empirical time markers that bridge the palaeographic gap between the fourth century BCE and the second century CE. They provide an objective date for the writing styles in the tested manuscripts.
Based on this information, the researchers trained the date-prediction model named Enoch. They used a previously in-house developed deep neural network for detection of handwritten ink-trace patterns, BiNet, in digitized manuscripts. This allows for a subsequent geometric shape analysis at the microlevel of the ink trace, such as curvature (called textural), as well as at the level of character shapes (called allographic). It provides a quantitative and empirical basis for the style analysis of handwriting which traditional palaeography cannot deliver. Cross-validation then showed that Enoch can predict radiocarbon-based dates from style with an uncertainty of some 30 years (plus and minus). This is even more precise than direct radiocarbon dating results in the period range of 300–50 BCE.
The first machine-learning-based model
Now that Enoch is ready for use, it becomes possible to date the roughly one thousand Dead Sea manuscripts from this time period. The researchers took a first step in this by feeding Enoch the binarized images of 135 scrolls and having the date predictions evaluated by palaeographers. With Enoch, researchers have a powerful new tool that they can use to support, refine, or modify their own subjective estimates for specific manuscripts, often to an accuracy of only 50 years for manuscripts over 2,000 years old.
Enoch is the first complete machine-learning-based model that employs raw image inputs to deliver probabilistic date predictions for handwritten manuscripts, while ensuring transparency and interpretability through its explainable design. The combination of empirical evidence (radiocarbon from physics and character-shape-based analyses from geometry) brings a degree of quantified objectivity to palaeography never before achieved in the field. And the methods underpinning Enoch can be used for date prediction in other partially-dated manuscript collections.
New chronology
First results from Enoch’s date predictions, presented in the PLOS One paper, demonstrate that many Dead Sea Scrolls are older than previously thought. This also changes how researchers should interpret the development of two ancient Jewish script styles which are called ‘Hasmonaean’ and ‘Herodian’. Specifically, manuscripts in Hasmonaean-type script can be older than the current estimate of ca. 150–50 BCE. And the Herodian-type script emerged earlier than previously thought, suggesting that these scripts existed next to each other since the late second century BCE instead of the mid-first century BCE which is the prevailing view.
This new chronology of the scrolls significantly impacts our understanding of political and intellectual developments in the eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and early Roman periods (late fourth century BCE until second century CE). It allows for new insights to be developed about literacy in ancient Judaea in relation to historical, political, and cultural developments such as urbanization, the rise of the Hasmonaean dynasty, and the rise and development of religious groups such as those behind the Dead Sea Scrolls and the early Christians.
Anonymous authors
Furthermore, this study establishes 4QDanielc (4Q114) and 4QQoheleta (4Q109) to be the first known fragments of a biblical book from the time of their presumed authors. We do not know who exactly finished the Book of Daniel but the common assumption is that this author did that during the early 160s BCE. Likewise, for Ecclesiastes (Qohelet) scholars assume that an anonymous author from the Hellenistic period (third century BCE) was behind this biblical book, instead of the view of tradition that it was King Solomon from the tenth century BCE. Our novel radiocarbon dating for 4Q114 and the Enoch date prediction for 4Q109 place these manuscripts in the same time as these anonymous authors from respectively the second and third centuries BCE. Thus, these results have now created the opportunity to study tangible evidence of hands that wrote the Bible.
• Researchers at Tel Aviv University have proposed a groundbreaking hypothesis: “Fire served two essential purposes for early humans—first, to safeguard large game from other predators and scavengers that sought to steal the ‘treasure,’ and second, to preserve the meat through smoking and drying, preventing spoilage and allowing it to be consumed over time."
Did prehistoric humans know that smoking meat could preserve it and extend its shelf life? Researchers from the Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Culturesat Tel Aviv University believe they did. Their new study presents a fresh perspective on a question that has long preoccupied prehistory scholars: What prompted early humans to begin using fire? According to the researchers, early humans, who primarily consumed large game, required fire not for cooking, but in order to smoke and dry meat so that it would not rot, thereby preserving it for extended periods and keeping it safe from predators and scavengers.
This insight fits into a broader unifying theory, developed by the same researchers, which explains many prehistoric phenomena based on human dependence on calories derived from large animals, alongside a continuous decline in the size of animals hunted throughout prehistoric periods. The study was conducted by Dr. Miki Ben-Dor and Prof. Ran Barkai of the Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Culturesat Tel Aviv University and was published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.
Prof. Barkai explains: “The origins of fire use is a ‘burning’ topic among prehistory researchers around the world. It is generally agreed that by 400,000 years ago, fire use was common in domestic contexts—most likely for roasting meat, and perhaps also for lighting and heating. But there is controversy regarding the preceding million years, and various hypotheses have been put forward to explain why early humans began using fire. In this study, we sought to explore a new perspective on the issue.”
Dr. Ben-Dor adds: “For early humans, fire use was not a given, and at most archaeological sites dated earlier than 400,000 years ago, there is no evidence of the use of fire. Nevertheless, at a number of early sites there are clear signs that fire was used, but without burnt bones or evidence of meat roasting. We understand that early humans at that time—mostly Homo erectus—did not use fire regularly, but only occasionally, in specific places and for special purposes. The process of gathering fuel, igniting a fire, and maintaining it over time required significant effort, and they needed a compelling, energy-efficient motive to do so. We have proposed a new hypothesis regarding that motive.”
The researchers reviewed the existing literature on all known prehistoric sites dated between 1.8 million and 800,000 years ago where evidence of fire use was found. There are nine such sites worldwide, including Gesher Benot Ya'aqov and Evron Quarry in Israel, six sites in Africa, and one site in Spain. Additionally, they relied on ethnographic studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, aligning their behavior with the conditions that prevailed in ancient environments.
Dr. Ben-Dor: “We examined what the nine ancient sites had in common, and found that all contained large quantities of bones from large animals—mostly elephants, but also hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, and others. From previous studies, we know that these animals were extremely important to early human diets and provided most of the necessary calories. The meat and fat of a single elephant, for example, contain millions of calories, enough to feed a group of 20–30 people for a month or more. A hunted elephant or hippopotamus was thus a real treasure—a kind of meat and fat ‘bank’ that needed to be protected and preserved for many days, since it was coveted not only by predators but also by bacteria.”
An analysis of the findings and calculations of the significant energetic advantage of preserving meat and fat led the researchers to a new conclusion, never before proposed: fire served two vital purposes for early humans—first, to guard the large game from other predators and scavengers seeking to seize the ‘treasure,’ and second, to preserve the meat through smoking and drying, preventing spoilage and making it edible for a long period of time.
Prof. Barkai concludes: “In this study, we propose a new understanding of the factors that motivated early humans to begin using fire: the need to safeguard large hunted animals from other predators, and to preserve the vast quantity of meat over time. It is likely that once fire was produced for these purposes, it was also occasionally used for cooking—at zero marginal energetic cost. Such use may explain evidence of fish roasting from around 800,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov. The approach we propose fits well into a global theory we have been developing in recent years, which explains major prehistoric phenomena as adaptations to the hunting and consumption of large animals, followed by their gradual disappearance and the resulting need to derive adequate energy from the exploitation of smaller animals.”
