Humans Have Smoked Meat for Nearly 2 Million Years, New Study Reveals
The preservation of meat through smoking is not a modern discovery—it may actually be one of the oldest culinary techniques known to humanity. According to a groundbreaking study conducted by researchers from Tel Aviv University, early humans might have been smoking meat almost 2 million years ago. This new finding not only challenges our understanding of prehistoric lifestyles but also suggests that the act of preserving food could have been one of the key motivations behind the early use of fire.
Ancient Fire Use Goes Beyond Warmth
In today's world, fire is a basic utility. But for early humans, creating and maintaining fire required significant effort. It involved gathering wood, generating sparks, and protecting flames from wind and rain. The new study argues that such dedication would only have been worthwhile if the benefits greatly outweighed the cost. One of the most compelling benefits? Preserving large quantities of meat.
Paleoanthropologist Miki Ben-Dor, one of the authors of the study, explains, “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.”
Study Details and Site Analysis
The researchers analyzed findings from nine archaeological sites located across Africa and Europe, including regions in South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Israel, and Spain. These sites held the remains of large animals alongside signs of fire use. Some bones found are estimated to be close to 2 million years old.
The consistent pattern across these sites showed that fire often appeared alongside large animal remains—not small game or plant-based foods. That led the researchers to suspect that fire was used not just for warmth or social gathering but as a deliberate tool to preserve meat.
Smoking Meat as a Preservation Strategy
When early humans hunted large prey like elephants, rhinos, or hippos, they could obtain hundreds of thousands of calories from just one animal. However, without preservation methods, most of that valuable meat would spoil quickly. That’s where fire comes into play.
Rather than cooking all the meat at once, early humans may have used smoke to dehydrate and preserve it. This would allow the meat to last much longer—weeks or even months—giving these early communities a stable food source. Moreover, the smoke could deter scavengers like hyenas and other predators from getting close to the camp.
Archaeologist Ran Barkai, co-author of the study, notes: “An ancient elephant, for example, could keep a couple dozen people fed for up to 3 months. Those millions of calories are worth preserving, a return on the investment of going out to hunt.”
Fires for Purpose, Not Just for Cooking
Interestingly, many sites dated earlier than 400,000 years ago do not show typical signs of fire use like burnt bones or charcoal deposits. But the sites reviewed in this study—dated back to 2 million years—do include fire-related evidence, albeit inconsistently. This led the researchers to suggest that fire was not used routinely by Homo erectus (an early human ancestor), but for specific, important tasks like meat preservation.
“While it’s likely that fire was occasionally used for cooking, its primary function might have been preserving meat,” Barkai adds. “Cooking came as a bonus—at zero marginal energetic cost—once the fire was already burning.”
The Evolutionary Advantage of Smoking Meat
The ability to preserve meat could have had a massive evolutionary advantage. Not only did it provide food security, but it also allowed early humans to settle in one place for longer periods. Communities could grow, social structures could form, and time could be spent on tasks beyond immediate survival.
Furthermore, preserving meat would have reduced the frequency and risk of hunting large animals. Hunting is dangerous and energy-intensive. With smoked meat available, early humans could hunt less often while still meeting their nutritional needs.
Fire as a Technological Milestone
The study places fire use alongside other transformative moments in human history, like tool-making and language development. It paints fire not just as a heat source or a way to cook food, but as a multifunctional tool that helped define who we are.
Ben-Dor emphasizes this point: “Fire use is commonly assumed to have evolved gradually, first for warmth and protection, then for cooking. Our study introduces a new perspective: that the preservation of food was a key driving force in the controlled use of fire.”
Implications for Future Research
This hypothesis opens up exciting avenues for future archaeological exploration. Researchers can now revisit ancient sites with this new lens, looking for signs of preservation rather than just cooking. It also invites a broader rethinking of early human behavior, from how we organized ourselves socially to how we migrated across continents.
Conclusion: Smoking Meat Changed Human History
The idea that early humans were preserving meat nearly 2 million years ago revolutionizes our understanding of prehistoric life. It wasn’t just about surviving the moment—it was about planning for the future. Through innovation and strategic use of resources like fire, our ancestors paved the way for the complex societies we live in today.
So next time you enjoy smoked brisket or jerky, remember: you’re partaking in a tradition that may stretch back nearly 2 million years.
Open Your Mind !!!
Source: Frontiers in Nutrition