Scientists have discovered an ancient hearth in Israel estimated to be 300,000 years old with what appear to be fragments of stone tools used to butcher and cook animals.

The discovery would mean humans sat around a fire and prepared and ate food earlier than the time Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa. According to LiveScience, the team of archeologists also found ash and charred bones in the hearth.

Ruth Shahack-Gross, of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, said the discovery could signify the point in history when a fire signified a meeting place and also a place to prepare and eat food, like a modern kitchen.

"These findings help us to fix an important turning point in the development of human culture - that in which humans first began to regularly use fire both for cooking meat and as a focal point - a sort of campfire - for social gatherings," she said in a press release. "They also tell us something about the impressive levels of social and cognitive development of humans living some 300,000 years ago."

According to the team's study, published in the Journal of Archeological Science, the hearth was 6.5 feet in diameter at the widest. Its layers of ash indicate it was used often over time and was also accessed by a large group of cave dwellers.

Further analysis found the hearth to be have a strategic placing, meaning its builders had some form of an intelligent blueprint in place. Before the hearth discovery, archeologists had discovered the bones of big game and other indicators of fire.

Located near Tel Aviv, the Qesem Cave was discovered more than 10 years ago when a construction crew was building a road east of the city.

The hearth discovery could provide new fuel for the debate to when the first use of controlled fire actually occurred. Some believe Homo erectus was eating cooked food nearly two million years ago, based on analysis of ancient teeth.

Avi Gopher, an archaeologist from Tel Aviv University, published a study three years ago on teeth discovered at the Qesem Cave. At the time, he told Nature they belonged to Homo sapiens, Neanderthals or another early human, but the research could not definitively say who.

"The best match for these teeth are those from the Skhul and Qafzeh caves in northern Israel," said Gopher, "which date later [to between 80,000 and 120,000 years ago] and which are generally thought to be modern humans of sorts."