Cooking liberates energy from indigestible food - like meat. Human guts are half the length of dog guts, we have real trouble with living off raw meat. Also pre

Cooking liberates energy from indigestible food - like meat. Human guts are half the length of dog guts, we have real trouble with living off raw meat. Also predators are sacred of fire. Other groups are likely known to you and interaction is governed in complex ways - eat my meat, give me help. In the spring... In terms of fire making, like all other survival skills it's about prep. I have pockets full of dry tinder, straw and splinters. They would have too, and caches of dry wood. One explaination here might simply be that these sites became untenable in the winter and were used as summer hunting camps. Short summer night fires would leave a fraction of the evidence of a constantly stoked winter hearth.