AI enters archaeology, scientists use algorithms to discover evidence of human use of fire nearly 1 million years ago

The oldest archaelogical evidence of the discovery and use of fire was found at the Evron Quarry archaeological site in Israel which dates back to 800,000 to one million years ago, reported Trend Radars.

Some of the flint stones from Evron Quarry which scientists believe have been burned with fire by early humans.—ZME Science/Zane Stepka. 

Previously, the evidence for controlled fire was discovered at Israel's Qasem Cave, which dated back to nearly 400,000 years ago.

This time, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel claim that they discovered burnt tools that could be a million-year-old.

“Fire is one of those things that makes humans who they are compared to other animals,” lead author Zane Stepka told the Jerusalem Post. 

It is almost impossible to find evidences of fire since ash and charcoal easily degrade over time. There are only five sites in the world that provide reliable evidence of ancient fire.

With the stone tools, some animal fossils dating back to 800,000 years ago were also found. 

Artificial intelligence helped researchers better understand the complexity of the ancient chemical data from the stone tools.

AI results showed that the 26 tools that were scrutinised had been heated to almost 600°C. Similar results were observed when the tusk of a now-extinct elephant was studied. 

“Now, we have million-year-old artifacts that we know were burnt, and that is something,” Stepka said. “There are theories, but no archaeological evidence of how fire was first made." 

The findings appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).