Approaching prehistoric demography: proxies, scales and scope of the Cologne Protocol in European contexts.

ABSTRACT: In many theories on the social and cultural evolution of human societies, the number and density of people living together in a given time and region is a crucial factor. Because direct data on past demographic developments are lacking, and reliability and validity of demographic proxies require careful evaluation, the topic has been approached from several different directions. This paper provides an introduction to a geostatistical approach for estimating prehistoric population size and density, the so-called Cologne Protocol and discusses underlying theoretical assumptions and upscaling transfer-functions between different spatial scale levels. We describe and compare the specifics for farming and for foraging societies and, using examples, discuss a diachronic series of estimates, cove

SUBMITTER: Schmidt I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7741091 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature