How Did Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers Cope With Climate Changes 12,000 Years Ago?

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – A latest examine has supplied useful insights into how prehistoric hunter-gatherer populations in Europe tailored to local weather adjustments over 12,000 years in the past.

An artist’s impression of ice age Earth at Pleistocene glacial most. Credit score: Ittiz – CC BY-SA 3.0

Carried out by scientists from the College of Cologne, together with 25 prehistoric archaeologists from twenty European universities and analysis establishments, the analysis highlights vital adjustments in inhabitants dimension and density throughout key durations on the finish of the final Ice Age.

Particularly, in the course of the Remaining Paleolithic interval between 14,000 and 11,600 years in the past, there was an preliminary institution of a bigger human inhabitants in north-eastern central Europe. This was adopted by a notable decline throughout Greenland Stadial 1, a chilly part that halved Europe’s whole inhabitants.

Apparently, some areas in central Europe exhibited stability and even slight will increase in inhabitants dimension regardless of this normal pattern. The researchers interpret these findings as proof of human migration eastward as a response to deteriorating local weather situations.

The workforce compiled an intensive database on archaeological websites from this period and employed a complicated geostatistical technique often known as the Cologne Protocol to estimate prehistoric human inhabitants sizes and densities throughout numerous European areas.

This protocol provides a standardized strategy for estimating demographic knowledge from prehistory, facilitating diachronic comparisons. The noticed regional shifts present a brand new understanding of how early people navigated environmental challenges.

The examine examines two vital durations: Greenland Interstadial 1d-a (GI-1d-a) and Greenland Stadial 1 (GS-1). Throughout GI-1d-a, a hotter part of the Remaining Paleolithic, people expanded into northern and north-eastern central Europe, marking this area as a focus for demographic adjustments in Europe for the primary time in prehistory. In distinction, populations in south-western Europe, significantly Spain and France, skilled a decline in comparison with earlier Higher Paleolithic estimates.

Because the local weather cooled considerably throughout GS-1—often known as the “Youthful Dryas” within the northern hemisphere—the general inhabitants of Europe was halved. Nevertheless, regional dynamics various notably. The examine reveals elevated inhabitants density in sure areas similar to northern Italy, Poland, and north-eastern Germany. Moreover, there was a normal eastward shift of populated areas throughout Europe.

The map reveals inhabitants shifts from south-western to north-eastern Europe over the last chilly part of the Ice Age. Credit score: PLOS ONE (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310942

“These observations most likely replicate the eastward motion of individuals in response to the very abrupt and pronounced climatic cooling in the course of the Youthful Dryas,” explains Dr. Isabell Schmidt from the College of Cologne’s Division of Prehistoric Archaeology. “People in the course of the Remaining Paleolithic apparently responded by migrating to extra favorable areas.”

The Cologne researchers are aware of excessive inhabitants declines in prehistory, similar to in the course of the late Gravettian (29,000 to 25,000 years in the past), when cooler temperatures diminished populations in western and central Europe by as much as two-thirds, resulting in the extinction of regional populations.

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Demographic dynamics in the course of the early phases of human prehistory stay largely unclear. Nevertheless, a latest examine contributes useful insights into how prehistoric people tailored to local weather change. This analysis was performed on the College of Cologne as a part of the Collaborative Analysis Heart 806—Our Solution to Europe, including to an increasing assortment of proof on this discipline.

The examine was revealed in PLOS ONE

Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Employees Author