# Early cooking methods



## di reston (Nov 28, 2016)

I'm in the middle of doing some research to send you about early cooking methods, and early cooked foods (apart from meat), and I came across this:

Weizmann Institute of Science

'When did humans REALLY begin to control fire and use it for their daily needs?

Scientists discovered, in the Qesem Cave in the Middle East, an archeological site near the modern city of Rosh Ha'ayn, the earliest evidence - dating to around 300,000 years ago (can you IMAGINE?) - of hitherto unequivacal repeated fire building in one place over a continuous period. These findings help answer the question, and hint that humans already had a highly advanced social structure and intellectual capacity.'

Other research I've done shows that grain was cultivated and used for food prepared over a fire (history of pasta).

Further research: unable to quote source: the pits were circular.

I ask myself: Looking at the customs and ways of living of your Native Indians, surely the same thing existed there? Not only that, there are those amongst you who still practise the tradition of campfires. How old is that tradition? Surely it couldn't have crossed such seas as surround the Americas all the way from the Middle East back then?

I'm absolutely intrigued, after all the hearth was surely THE most important move forward in food preparation?

I'm going to become a cyber-archeologist to find out more!

di reston


Enough is never as good as a feast   Oscar Wilde


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## GotGarlic (Nov 28, 2016)

di reston said:


> I ask myself: Looking at the customs and ways of living of your Native Indians, surely the same thing existed there? Not only that, there are those amongst you who still practise the tradition of campfires. How old is that tradition? Surely it couldn't have crossed such seas as surround the Americas all the way from the Middle East back then?
> 
> I'm absolutely intrigued, after all the hearth was surely THE most important move forward in food preparation?
> 
> I'm going to become a cyber-archeologist to find out more!



I'm not sure what the current consensus on the earliest Native Americans is, but there is evidence that Asians crossed a land bridge between Russia and Alaska about 12,000 years ago, when the last ice age reduced the amount of liquid water on the Earth's surface (it no longer exists). 

There is also evidence that Pacific Islanders crossed the Pacific from the Philippines to Hawaii to South America several thousand years ago. Not sure exactly how long ago that was. 

So the Americas have not been populated as long as the Middle East or Europe, but those travelers brought their technology with them.


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## CakePoet (Nov 28, 2016)

Many  older groups of people and cultures have this idea of cooking in covered pits with hot stones.  This exist all over the world, so this must be one of the older ways of doing it. The food gets cooked with no risk of a fire.


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 28, 2016)

I think the idea of repeatedly building a fire in the same location may have to do with the difficulty in starting a fire.  Once a fire was started it was easier to feed that fire and keep it going than it was to start a new one each day in another location.  In more recent Colonial America and other areas around the world it was not uncommon to "borrow" a fire from a neighbor when a new cabin was built or when your own fire went out.  A person would be sent to a neighboring home with a small iron pot or clay and a shovel or two of coals would be placed in the pot and taken to the new homes fireplace.

It's hard to know if these ideas originate in one group and spread or if it is an example of cultural parallelism.

Very interesting.


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## CharlieD (Nov 28, 2016)

well, Native Americans came from Russia, so maybe some millions year before that they came from Middle East. Who knows. But maybe the tradition of camp fire was in fact brought here over the oceans, before the oceans were there.


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## GotGarlic (Nov 29, 2016)

Aunt Bea said:


> I think the idea of repeatedly building a fire in the same location may have to do with the difficulty in starting a fire.  Once a fire was started it was easier to feed that fire and keep it going than it was to start a new one each day in another location.  In more recent Colonial America and other areas around the world it was not uncommon to "borrow" a fire from a neighbor when a new cabin was built or when your own fire went out.  A person would be sent to a neighboring home with a small iron pot or clay and a shovel or two of coals would be placed in the pot and taken to the new homes fireplace.
> 
> It's hard to know if these ideas originate in one group and spread or if it is an example of cultural parallelism.
> 
> Very interesting.



People have been using flint with steel or iron to start fires for at least a couple hundred thousand years.


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## GotGarlic (Nov 29, 2016)

CharlieD said:


> well, Native Americans came from Russia, so maybe some millions year before that they came from Middle East. Who knows. But maybe the tradition of camp fire was in fact brought here over the oceans, before the oceans were there.



They came from what is now politically Russia, but their ethnicity was primarily Asian. 

The oceans have always been there. Their size has varied because of the ice ages, but they have never disappeared. 

Human migration from Africa took about 60,000 years. I used to read National Geographic all the time. It's fascinating to learn about. 

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey/

http://time.com/3964634/native-american-origin-theory/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firelighting


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## GotGarlic (Nov 29, 2016)

Aunt Bea said:


> I think the idea of repeatedly building a fire in the same location may have to do with the difficulty in starting a fire.  Once a fire was started it was easier to feed that fire and keep it going than it was to start a new one each day in another location.  In more recent Colonial America and other areas around the world it was not uncommon to "borrow" a fire from a neighbor when a new cabin was built or when your own fire went out.  A person would be sent to a neighboring home with a small iron pot or clay and a shovel or two of coals would be placed in the pot and taken to the new homes fireplace.



I had another thought: It's also easier and safer to control fire when you have a designated place for it, usually surrounded by stones or something that isn't flammable.


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