Beschreibung:
Françoise Delpech' s first-rate paper in Paleo n° 11 at last gives the solid naturalistic bases which are necessary for any calculation of the prehistoric populations. It brings out the huge variation between the full glacial and Boiling periods (from 1 to 1 7). That basis should be corrected according to the surfaces actually occupied: from one quarter to one tenth depending on the areas, i.e. 18000 inhabitants in Upper Magdalenian France and 30 000 in Europe. For the Holocene there are difficulties about the ungulate/ human ratio; my now rather dated calculation of 50000 inhabitants in France for the Boreal should be increased, maybe doubled.