Paleolithic population growth pulses evidenced by small animal exploitation
Variations in small game hunting along the northern and eastern rims of the Mediterranean Sea and results from predator-prey simulation modeling indicate that human population densities increased abruptly during the late Middle Paleolithic and again during the Upper and Epi-Paleolithic periods. The demographic pulses are evidenced by increasing reliance on agile, fast-reproducing partridges, hares, and rabbits at the expense of slow-reproducing but easily caught tortoises and marine shellfish and, concurrently, climate-independent size diminution in tortoises and shellfish. The results indicate that human populations of the early Middle Paleolithic were exceptionally small and highly dispersed.
Stiner
MC
M. C. Stiner, N. D. Munro, T. A. Surovell, Department of Anthropology, Building 30, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. E. Tchernov, Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
Munro
ND
Surovell
TA
Tchernov
E
Bar-Yosef
O