REMAINS of what archaeologists believed to be the oldest fireplace on Earth
may be no such thing.
For 60 years, the oldest human hearth was thought to have been in a cave in
Zhoukoudian, China, where 鈥淧eking man鈥� (Homo erectus) lived 500 000 to
200 000 years ago. 杏吧原创s had found burned bones of animals there, close to
stone tools.
Now Steve Weiner at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and
his colleagues have analysed the site and artefacts again. They did not find any
evidence of a fireplace, such as ash or charcoal remnants. But they did find
hints that at one time there was a pond at the site. So it鈥檚 possible that the
burnt bones were washed into the site from elsewhere, they say in last week鈥檚
Science (vol 281, p 251).
Advertisement