Frequent disturbances enhanced the resilience of past human populations

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.