Hans Kylberg wrote:

>>Somebody want to remind me how long
>>humans, or pre-humans are thought to have had fire?
>
>If I remember right it is something very long ago, like a million or more
>years, but the first _evidence_ of use for cooking is juast 30000 years ago.

What about this one?

The Electronic Telegraph had a 12-Aug-97 article "Barbecues are a thing of
the past". Some archaeologists from Liverpool University working in the
Suffolk forest found what they believe may be a hearth that is 400,000
years old.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000403076205899&rtmo=33f3a8be&atmo=33f3a8be&pg=/et/97/8/12/nbbq12.html

Don.