Ancient charcoal sheds new light on how early humans fueled their lives

Nearly 800,000 years ago, early humans gathered along the shores of a lush lake in what is now northern Israel. Here, they returned again and again, hunting large animals, cooking fish over controlled fires, and organizing their daily lives around hearths. Now, a new study shows that even the wood fueling those fires, which is preserved as rare fragments of charcoal, can reveal how carefully these ancient communities understood and used their environment.