Tag Archive for 'Acheulian'

Ancient inhabitants of the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov site in Israel likely used some kind of earth oven that maintained a temperature below 500 degrees Celsius to cook their fish. Image credit: Ella Maru / Tel Aviv University.

780,000-Year-Old Charcoal Reveals How Early Humans Mastered Fire

Apr 16, 2026 by News Staff

Hominins at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel relied on driftwood gathered along a lakeshore to fuel their hearths, according to new...

Handaxes made on side-struck flakes (a-c) and Kombewa flakes (d-f) from Melka Wakena, Ethiopia. Image credit: Tegenu Gossa & Erella Hovers, doi: 10.1007/s12520-024-02072-8.

New Research Explores Decision-Making Processes of Early Hominin Tool-Makers

Jan 15, 2025 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have characterized the properties of raw stone materials that were selected and used by Early Pleistocene tool-makers at an Acheulian...

Examples of some of the plants recovered from Gesher Benot Ya’akov percussive tools, including the whole plant, the edible part, and the characteristic starch grains. From left to right: oak, yellow water lily, and common oat. Scale bars - 20 µm. Image credit: Hadar Ahituv & Yoel Melamed.

Starch-Rich Plant Foods Played Central Role in Hominin Diet 780,000 Years Ago

Jan 7, 2025 by News Staff

Archaeologists say they have extracted a wide variety of starch grains from stone tools found at an early Middle Pleistocene site in Israel. These include...