A team from the Weizmann Institute of Science, using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, discovered at a site in Israel non-visible traces of fire dating back at least 800 thousand yearsaccording to an article published this Tuesday in the scientific journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).
The Evron Quarry, located in western Galilee, is an open-air archaeological site that was discovered in the mid-1970s. During a series of excavations, which took place at the timearchaeologists excavated 14 meters and discovered a wide variety of animal fossils and paleolithic tools dating from between 800 thousand and a million years ago.
None of these findings had visual evidence of heatsince ash and carbon degrade over time, therefore, the group of scientists began to develop a more advanced AI model than the one used up to that time.
The advantage of AI is that it can find hidden patterns on a multitude of scales, identifying the chemical composition of materials down to the molecular level. The output of the model can estimate the temperature to which the stone tools were heatedwhich ultimately provides information regarding past human behaviors.
Using a suitable method, the research team began looking for molecular signs of the stone tools used by the inhabitants of Evron. The results revealed that the tools had been heated to a wide range of temperatures, some exceeding 600 degrees..
In addition, they analyzed 87 remains of fauna and discovered that the tusk of an extinct elephant showed structural changes as a result of heating.
According to the research team, the presence of hidden heat suggests that our ancient ancestors were “experimenters”. They also assured that by looking at archeology from a different perspective, “we can find much more than we initially thought.”
Finally, the scientists They hope to be able to apply these methods to other Lower Palaeolithic sites to identify non-visual evidence of fire use. by the inhabitants of the time.
