On Wed, 6 Jun 2001, ardeith l carter wrote:

> On Mon, 4 Jun 2001 14:13:52 -0400 Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]>
> writes:
>  I guess it's just an open question whether
> > this is really paleo-level technology.  It's obviously well
> > within the capabilities of every known extant "stone age"
> > traditional culture.  And, as one writer notes, "Almost no
> > evidence exists that eating cooked beans will harm humans."
>
> Yeah, thanks.  I guess that's what I'm aiming for....not
> strictly raw food....but as close to what the ancestors
> used as possible.....which includes cooking many things.
> After all, the controlled use of fire in hearth situations
> goes back some 40K years.....in a place called Terra
> Amata....at least that's what I think I remember from
> my archaeology textbooks......

Like everything else in paleoanthropology, this is disputed.
Here's a reference to a much older date:
http://www.unisa.ac.za/dept/vir/homsite.html

Here's another, with more recent dates, but still long before
40K:
http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/anthropology/news/fall98/4.htm

Whether they were using fire to cook beans is another question,
and very hard to answer...

Todd Moody
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