Researchers from Israel and abroad identified signs of burns on fossilized bones deep in South Africa's Wonderwerk Cave, pushing back the known date for controlled use of fire to nearly 1.8 million years ago — roughly 800,000 years earlier than previously documented, according to the report.
According to a report published Wednesday, international and Israeli scientists detected evidence of burns on fossilized bones deep in the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa. The findings set back the known timeline for intentional fire use from approximately 1 million years ago to close to 1.8 million years ago. The research team included scientists from Israeli institutions, though specific institutional affiliations were not detailed in the initial report. The discovery was described in a Times of Israel write-up published Wednesday morning. The Zioneer has previously reported on other prehistoric finds in Israel, including a 400,000-year-old cave near Zikhron Ya'akov described by the Israel Antiquities Authority and University of Haifa, but the Wonderwerk Cave discovery is a separate international project.
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