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The Tortoise and the Hare. Small-Game Use, the Broad-Spectrum Revolution, and Paleolithic Demography
Current Anthropology
|December 14, 1999
Summary
Small-game data reveals Paleolithic population dynamics, showing early small, dispersed groups and significant growth pulses. These demographic shifts influenced human evolution and subsistence strategies.
Area of Science:
- Paleoanthropology
- Archaeology
- Archaeofaunal Analysis
Background:
- Understanding Paleolithic demographic pulses is crucial for human origins research.
- Previous analyses of diet breadth have limitations in identifying population dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate the utility of small-game data for identifying and dating Paleolithic demographic pulses.
- To investigate population dynamics related to modern human origins and the evolution of food production.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of archaeofaunal series from Israel and Italy.
- Ranking small prey based on the work of capture.
Main Results:
- Early Middle Paleolithic populations were small and dispersed.
- A major population growth pulse occurred in the eastern Mediterranean before the end of the Middle Paleolithic.
- Upper and Epi-Paleolithic demographic pulses significantly altered selection pressures on human subsistence, technology, and society.
Conclusions:
- Small-game data is a powerful tool for reconstructing Paleolithic demographic history.
- Findings support Flannery's broad-spectrum-revolution hypothesis.
- Work-of-capture analysis is more effective than taxonomic diversity for studying human diet breadth.
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