The role of hunting and gathering in rapid population growth will be reconsidered with support from European Research Council

As part of a European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant project, archaeologist Mari Tõrv from the University of Tartu will study how hunter-gatherers across the Northern hemisphere achieved significant population growth and social complexity long before agriculture and cattle farming became the dominating way of life. Tõrv’s research team will contribute to the project with material analysis from the Baltic region.

We can read from history textbooks how major population shifts begin with the advent of agricultural farming and the domestication of animals. The prevailing view is that food surplus and permanent settlements, as well as socially complex societies, only emerged in early agricultural communities.

However, archaeological evidence shows that in the Baltic region and other regions of the Northern hemisphere, hunter-gatherer societies underwent notable population growth already before the rise of agricultural farming.

An entirely new perspective on the population history of the Northern hemisphere

Image

The new research project explores the long-term causes behind these population changes in various regions of the Northern hemisphere. “When we talk about hunter-fisher-gatherers, they are assumed to have been people who constantly moved in search of food. In reality, various archaeological methods have helped us learn that this wasn’t the case – they also stored food, lived in villages, and went hunting in small groups,” explained Mari Tõrv.

“Because this was a reasonable and optimal choice in these regions, hunting, fishing, and gathering remained viable subsistence strategies in the Northern hemisphere for much longer than elsewhere,” Tõrv added. “If there are seals in the sea and animals in the forest, it doesn’t make sense to struggle against the climate to grow oats, barley, or wheat. So we should view the hunters, fishers, and gatherers here as resilient communities who knew how to live in harmony with their environment.”

If population growth was not linked to agriculture or animal farming, then what cultural and environmental factors led to the expansion of small hunter-gatherer communities? The upcoming project goes beyond simple correlations between climate and culture, aiming to provide a much broader understanding of the population processes of Stone Age hunter-gatherers. Among other things, it will examine the impact of people’s conscious choices and the role of traditions in shaping diet, settlement patterns, and the emergence of social inequality.

Collaboration with top international researchers

The recently funded FORAGER project brings together 37 researchers from nine institutions across six partner universities. The project is led by Professor Oliver Craig from the University of York (UK), Professor Enrico Crema from the University of Cambridge (UK), Professor Peter Jordan from Lund University (Sweden), and Professor Anna Marie Prentiss from the University of Montana (USA).

This kind of international collaboration, made possible only through an ERC Synergy Grant, enables the use of extensive datasets and a comparative analysis of the Estonian archaeological material and finds from Japan, the Pacific Northwest, the Atlantic Northeast, and the Baltic Sea region. A comparison of population growth across these regions helps uncover the complexity of the underlying processes and fosters fruitful cooperation thanks to the diverse academic backgrounds of the participating researchers.

The University of Tartu contributes to the project through research on food and subsistence in the Baltic region, as well as by compiling broader data related to the region. In addition to Mari Tõrv, the project involves Ester Oras, Professor of Archaeochemistry, and Aivar Kriiska, Professor of Laboratory Archaeology. Also, a doctoral position will be created.

The ERC project “Investigating alternative trajectories for human demographic growth in temperate northern Holocene societies” (FORAGER) will run for five years.