Just my two cents - Aborigines in Northern Australia used Baler shells (A
large shell) to boil water in.  As to how ancient there use is I don't know
but suspect not very ancient.

> > Bruce, pans are of metal. Metal usage is less than 6000 years old.
> > Pottery is neolithic, less than 12000 years old.
>
> Actually, I have read that there was fired clay for making art objects
> as long as 25000 years ago in Europe, but as you say no evidence that
> they made pots and cooked in them. Just a point of interest.
>
>
>
> > The point is not about cooking. But roasting, frying at high
> > temperatures. And with lots of fat.
>
> There are a number of ways to cook without pots and pans. One of the
> easiest is to heat rocks in a fire and cook on them. A flat or concave
> rock would make a great fry-pan, though I don't claim to have ever seen
> evidence this was actually done in paleo times. My point is it would
> not have been difficult to cook over a fire even without metal or
> pottery. Cooking meat on a stick is easy, I have done it many times
> camping, even though there is as you say some loss of fat. That would
> have been critical only during times of shortage.
>
>
> > May have occured from time to time. Certainly not everyday.
> >
> My view on this and many issues is to test whether a practice is
> widespread, if all or nearly all recorded peoples in historical times
> did something, then my position is that it is probably a very old
> practice. For example, fire is used by all but one or two small groups
> world-wide, therefore fire is probably an old technology. Tattooing
> skin is also a worldwide practice. I was not surprised in the least
> when the Iceman was found to be tattooed, even though the "experts" all
> said this was a great surprise to them. Clothing ditto, even tropical
> rain forest people adorn their bodies.
>
> My point in this long digression is that there are very few cultures
> that eat much raw meat. Yes, we can all name a few famous cases, the
> Japanese and the Inuit, and to a lesser extent many other groups eat at
> least some raw meat, steak tartar for example. But the great majority
> of meat is, everywhere on earth even in Japan, eaten cooked, and all of
> our historical records show this has been the case for a long time. It
> is not evidence, of course, hardly even a theory, but I think it lends
> weight to the idea that cooking meat is a longstanding practice for all
> of the human race.