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Science 30 April 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5671, pp. 725 - 727
DOI: 10.1126/science.1095443
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Reports

Evidence of Hominin Control of Fire at Gesher Benot Ya`aqov, Israel

Naama Goren-Inbar,1* Nira Alperson,1 Mordechai E. Kislev,2 Orit Simchoni,2 Yoel Melamed,2 Adi Ben-Nun,3 Ella Werker4

The presence of burned seeds, wood, and flint at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya`aqov in Israel is suggestive of the control of fire by humans nearly 790,000 years ago. The distribution of the site's small burned flint fragments suggests that burning occurred in specific spots, possibly indicating hearth locations. Wood of six taxa was burned at the site, at least three of which are edible—olive, wild barley, and wild grape.

1 Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel.
2 Department of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel.
3 GIS Center, Hebrew University, Edmond Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
4 Department of Botany, Hebrew University, Edmond Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: goren{at}cc.huji.ac.il

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