The picture emerging so far is basically one of small and seasonally
mobile groups of hunter-gatherers. The hunters targeted not only boar
and deer but also big game such as elephant and bison, though these
were becoming scarcer in the last Palaeolithic phase due to climatic
warming and increased hunting by a growing population. Gatherers
searched for a variety of berries and nuts such as hazel.
Palaeolithic groups were made up of a small number of extended
families, and totalled between 20 and 150 individuals. Extended families
were important for the rearing of children, since many parents were
dead before their thirties, and there were many orphaned children
needing the protection of the longer-lived among the adults.6
Although
the population was growing it probably never exceeded 20,000