Population regime· The columns of time

Foragers worldwide

65 ka → 11.7 ka

Between 65,000 and 11,700 years ago, hunter-gatherers occupied Eurasia, Sahul and then the Americas, and by 10,000 BCE the whole species numbered a few million people.

Regime corresponding to the occupation of Eurasia, Sahul and then the Americas by hunter-gatherer populations. Around 10,000 BCE, world population is estimated at a few million people, about 4.4 million according to the HYDE 3.2 reconstruction.

What the evidence shows

In 53,000 years, the species occupies five continents instead of one, while the curve of its numbers remains almost flat. The HYDE reconstruction estimates at about 4.4 million the number of human beings alive in 10,000 BCE, once the dispersal is complete, fewer than the population of a medium-sized present-day city. Geographical extension and numerical growth therefore constitute two distinct phenomena, and this band is the interval in which they separate: what changes is the distribution and not the total.

Bounds and conventions

The expansion from which most non-African ancestry proceeds is dated to 70,000 to 50,000 years; the 65,000-year limit retained here follows the oldest, and disputed, dates from Sahul. Before the Holocene, numbers are orders of magnitude and not counts: HYDE brackets its 4.4 million estimate with a range from under ten thousand to nearly nine million.