Number

350，000 years

Researchers found after the study on the artifacts from an Israel cave that human ancestors may begin to regularly use fire about 350，000 years ago. In this cave， flint in the sedimentary deposit of more than 350，000 years has hardly been burnt， however， there is more or less flint in each layer of sediment afterwards has been exposed in fire.

Researchers have pointed out that the evidence has indicated that cave dwellers at that time have learned to control fire. Fire control was the most important progress in prehistory， and also one of the mysteries that are hard to identify. Some scholars believe that human beings mastered the method of fire usage "recently"， while some other scholars believe that human beings began to use fire to cook food as early as 2 million years ago. The discovery supports the result of a previous study， namely human beings began to use fire 400，000 years ago to 300，000 years ago.