2024/05/01 by Philip Riris, Fábio Silva, Enrico R. Crema +11 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Paleopathology and ancient diseases #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
paper · doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07354-8
openalex publication_date 2024/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Abstract The record of past human adaptations provides crucial lessons for guiding responses to crises in the future 1–3 . To date, there have been no systematic global comparisons of humans’ ability to absorb and recover from disturbances through time 4,5 . Here we synthesized resilience across a broad sample of prehistoric population time–frequency data, spanning 30,000 years of human history. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of population decline show that frequent disturbances enhance a population’s capacity to resist and recover from later downturns. Land-use patterns are important mediators of the strength of this positive association: farming and herding societies are more vulnerable but also more resilient overall. The results show that important trade-offs exist when adopting new or alternative land-use strategies.