1 EARLY PEOPLES LEARN TO COOK WITH FIRE Scientists are not sure when early humans first cooked food The best proof was found in a cave in Israel Bits of bones were uncovered in the ashes there Flint tools were found nearby Burnt bones were discovered in other parts of the cave Experts think people living there made fires and cooked meat approximately 300,000 years ago Other sites have suggested that humans may have been using cooking fires as much as 1 million years ago Whenever it first happened learning to use fire for cooking was a huge turning point for ancient humans The heat kills harmful bacteria 4 Fire provided the earliest Fire provided the earliest cooking method cooking method cooking method
6 5 Width in feet 2 m of an ancient cooking hearth discovered in a cave in Israel Fire was used approximately 300,000 years ago in modern-day Israel Led to better health and social development FOOD SCIENCE Food scientists search for new ways to help farmers and food producers to provide safe healthful foods for all people They study which foods are best to eat and how to keep foods fresh longer They look for better ways to prepare food and how to transport food to people who need it Burnt bones and ash found in a cave in South Africa suggest that early humans may have made fires there This makes food safer to consume Cooked foods are also easier to chew and digest After they started cooking with fire humans absorbed more nutrients from what they ate This made their bodies and especially their brains work better Cooking fires served another purpose as well They were a place where early peoples gathered and socialized 5
2 EARLY AGRICULTURE CHANGES SOCIETY For thousands of years people had to hunt for their food They gathered roots fruit seeds and leaves They made primitive weapons to hunt animals They had to move constantly from place to place to find enough food It was a hard dangerous life Approximately 10,000 years ago a group of people living near the Dead Sea started saving the seeds of wild wheat plants They planted the seeds to grow more wheat Wheat was one of the first crops grown by early humans 6
1,000 Approximate years after farmers started growing crops that they began raising animals for food Agriculture began in approximately 8,000 BCE in the Middle East Lessened need for hunting and gathering Led to beginning of cities and civilization They could plant enough grain in the wet season to last through summer droughts Historians believe they were the first farmers The population expanded into other parts of the Middle East These early farmers soon were growing wheat barley peas and beans Around the same time people in the area of modern-day China started growing rice And evidence has been found that squash was being grown in modern-day Mexico Farming changed the way people lived They no longer had to travel to find food They built homes and Farmers have been growing rice in the area of modern-day China for thousands of years lived together in villages Farmers grew enough food for many people This freed others to do different kinds of work Societies that were more complicated and varied soon developed 7
