Human-like species migrating out of their African homeland had mastered the use of fire up to 790,000 years ago, the journal Science reports.

The evidence, from northern Israel, suggests species such as Homo erectus may have been surprisingly sophisticated in their behaviour.

The find links earlier evidence of controlled fire from Africa with later discoveries in Eurasia, scientists say.

Scientifically Accurate Re-enactment

The researchers say that a wildfire is unlikely to be the cause.

Researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan excavated a waterlogged site at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov.

In 34m-thick ground deposits, they found numerous flint implements belonging to the so-called Acheulean tradition of tool manufacture. Some of these were burnt, while other were not.

The team mapped the distribution of the burnt and unburned artefacts and compared them. Although there was some overlap with the unburned artefacts, the burnt ones clustered together at specific spots at the site.

The researchers think the clusters of burnt artefacts, which date to between 790,000 and 690,000 years ago, indicate the sites of ancient camp fires, or hearths, made by either Homo erectus or Homo ergaster.

It could have been a primitive form of Homo sapiens, they say, but other researchers consider this improbable.

"I believe fire was a very advantageous technology which empowered these humans," co-author Nira Alperson, of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, told BBC News Online.

Some researchers believe the control of fire enabled dramatic changes in human diet, the ability to defend social groups against wild animals and aided social interaction...