Using a protocol developed at the University of Cologne, researchers have been able to reconstruct how Europe was colonized by modern humans. The data shows that the population of European hunter-gatherers in the Aurignacian period, between 33,000 and 42,000 years ago, had an average of 1,500 individuals.
The results, published in PLoS ONE in February 2019, they give an upper limit of 3,000 and a lower limit of 800 people. The analysis focused on an area that goes from the north of Spain to Central and Eastern Europe, abundant in archaeological finds.
In the study they investigated the groupings of individuals, how they were distributed spatially and what social, cultural and economic strategies they used to survive under extreme climatic and environmental conditions.
Estimates showed that only five areas of Europe had a viable population of at least 150 people or more:northern Spain (260 people), southwestern France (440 people), Belgium (210), parts of today's Czech Republic (170) and the upper Danube basin (140).
The centers of these populations were about 400 kilometers apart, a consistent pattern across Europe. Other minor settlements within these areas, with populations that would not have been viable on their own, show in the archaeological record intensive contact with the central populations. According to the researchers, they would be seasonal cyclical settlements, located at an average distance of 200 kilometers from the main ones. They would be made up of hunter-gatherers who regularly traveled these distances, adapting to various habitats, which would have allowed a stable settlement on the subcontinent despite the extremely low population density.
The density estimated by researchers for Western and Central Europe during the Aurignacian period is 0.103 people per 100 square kilometers.
During the following period, the Gravettian, the socio-spatial organization of the Aurignacian would be consolidated, with a growth in population, going from 1,500 to 2,800 people, and in density.