JERUSALEM, Feb 10 — Researchers in Israel have unearthed the world’s most ancient bonfire dating back 300,000 years and the oldest remains of cooked meat, Xinhua news agency reported.

A discovery in the cave of Qesem near Rosh Ha’ayin in central Israel has brought to light what archaeologists believe is the oldest barbecue that had been in continuous use.

“People have been living here since 400,000 years ago, and their garbage, which is our treasure, is what made them leave the site. It just became a dump,” said Ran Barkai who co-leads the excavation with Avi Gopher from Tel Aviv University.

The dwelling had been kept from intruders for thousands of years after most of the cave’s structures collapsed, while prehistoric garbage had almost sealed the entrance.

“After so many years of unearthing remains of these people, we have found a perfect bonfire. It looks as if it had been used yesterday. It has remains of ashes and there are hundreds of thousands of little burnt bones all over the cave, which shows that they ate big quantities of meat,” Barkai said.

Researchers have yet to define the kind of prehistoric men that lived in the cave, but are sure they came after homo erectus and were not modern men, homo sapiens or Neanderthals.

So far, the only human remains that have been found on the site are eleven teeth which researchers said are insufficient to determine the kind of hominids they were.

The importance of the discovery is not only the bonfire, but the myriad of burnt bones found around it.

“We have found the oldest proof of the use of fire to cook meat around 400,000 years ago. The actual bonfire we discovered is 300,000 years old, but we know that there were other fires being used before, as the bones that we found prove,” Barkai said.

Deers were these hominids’ favourite food and they would also roast other small animals in the area.

“I would estimate that at any given time, the tribe members would be between 20 and 25 over a period of 200,000 years. I can tell you that this bonfire was used to light the centre of the cave and was a gathering point for the whole tribe,” said Barkai.

The discovery is part of an ongoing excavation at the cave which began in 2000 to study remains found at the site.

The findings have been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. — Bernama