Studies that employ probability distributions of radiocarbon dates to study past population size often use exponential increase in radiocarbon dates with time as a standard of comparison for detecting population fluctuations. We show that in the case of early postglacial interior Scandinavia, however, the summed probability distribution of radiocarbon dates has best fit with a S-shaped logistic growth curve. Despite the logistic growth model having solid grounding in ecological theory, we further argue that what our data indicate is not logistic growth in the population ecological sense but “false logistic” growth that mainly follows from climatic and environmental forcing. In the initial postglacial phase, 9500–7500 BCE, human settlement was located almost exclusively along the Scandinavian Atlantic coast and the use of the mountainous interior remained low. Thereafter the formation of separate inland adaptations resulted in population growth in tandem with increasing climatic warming and environmental productivity. Some millennia later, when environmental productivity started to decrease after the Holocene Thermal Maximum, hunter-gatherer population size in interior Scandinavia reached a plateau that lasted at least 2000 years. Lowering productivity prevented any population growth that would be detectable in the available archaeological record.

采用放射性碳日期的概率分布来研究过去人口规模的研究通常使用放射性碳日期随时间呈指数增长作为检测人口波动的比较标准。然而，我们表明，在冰河后期早期内部斯堪的纳维亚半岛的情况下，放射性碳日期的总和概率分布最符合 S 形逻辑增长曲线。尽管逻辑增长模型在生态理论中有着坚实的基础，但我们进一步认为，我们的数据表明的不是人口生态意义上的逻辑增长，而是主要来自气候和环境强迫的“错误逻辑”增长。在最初的后冰期阶段，即公元前 9500-7500 年，人类住区几乎完全位于斯堪的纳维亚大西洋沿岸，对山区内陆的使用率仍然很低。此后，独立内陆适应的形成导致人口增长与气候变暖和环境生产力的增加同步。几千年后，当环境生产力在全新世极热期开始下降时，斯堪的纳维亚半岛内陆以狩猎采集为生的人口规模达到了一个持续至少 2000 年的稳定期。生产力的降低阻止了现有考古记录中可检测到的任何人口增长。当环境生产力在全新世极热期开始下降时，斯堪的纳维亚半岛内陆以狩猎采集为生的人口规模达到了一个持续至少 2000 年的稳定期。生产力的降低阻止了现有考古记录中可检测到的任何人口增长。当环境生产力在全新世极热期开始下降时，斯堪的纳维亚半岛内陆以狩猎采集为生的人口规模达到了一个持续至少 2000 年的稳定期。生产力的降低阻止了现有考古记录中可检测到的任何人口增长。