What I have seen on the population of the ancient earth is sparse, and
fraught with assumptions. Here is what I have at my finger tips:
"Homo sapiens assumed an essentially modern form at least 50,000
years before he managed to do anything about improving his means
of production. Of the estimated 150 billion men who have ever
lived on earth, over 60 per cent have lived as hunters and
gatherers; about 35 per cent have lived by agriculture and the
remaining few per cent have lived in industrial societies.
"To date, the hunting way of life has been the most
successful and persistent adaptation man has eveer achieved." ~
Richard B. Lee and Irven Devore, "Problems in the Study of Hunters
and Gatherers," in Richard B. Lee and Irven Devore, Man the
Hunter, (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1968), pp. 3-12, p. 3
And there is the fascinating article by Carl Haub in which he assumes that
humanity began with 2 peopld 50,000 years ago and calculates the numbers who
have ever lived based upon birth rates required to allow the species to
live. For most of human history it was in the area of 80 births per 1000.
"Starting with 2 humans in 50,000 BC Carl Haub calculated that
105,472,380,169 people had been born up until 1995. The world population at
that time was 5,780,000,000 which means that 5.5% of all people ever born
are alive today.
Carl Haub, ìHow Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?î Population Today,
Feb. 1995, p. 4-5
He says that the world population in 8000 BC was about 5 million. Now, he
starts at 50,000 years ago and anatomically modern man has been on earth for
120,000 years, so his numbers are a bit low. And then there is the issue of
whether or not to count the previous hominids which would increase the
number substantially.
"Throughout the Paleolithic, population numbers remained
small, leaving greater chance for random genetic drift to produce
considerable diversification. Population size of a continental
or subcontinental area at the beginning of expansion may have
been on the order of 50,000-100,000 individuals."
L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paoli Menozzi and Alberto Piazzi, The History and
Geography of Human Genes, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), p.
156
"If the population density of England was intermediate with
respect to that of Europe, which was practically uninhabited in
more northern regions and probably more densely populated in more
southern ones, then the late pre-Neolithic population of Europe
was 200,000 to 700,000. With the transition to agriculture, the
population density rose to 1-5 inhabitants per km2." ~ L. Luca
Cavalli-Sforza, Paoli Menozzi and Alberto Piazzi, The History and
Geography of Human Genes, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 262
"McEvedy and Jones gave the following European population
estimates:
3000 B.C. more than 2 million
2000 B.C. 5 million
1000 B.C. 10 million
A.D. 200 28-36 million
A.D. 1000 36 million
A.D. 1300 79 million
A.D. 1500 81 million
A.D. 1900 390 million"
~ L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paoli Menozzi and Alberto Piazzi, The
History and Geography of Human Genes, (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1994), p. 262
glenn
see http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/dmd.htm
for lots of creation/evolution information
anthropology/geology/paleontology/theology\
personal stories of struggle
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