Abstract
A review of the literature on ancient populations and civilizations reveals that the evidence is more in conformity with the hypothesis that humans began with a small population about 6,000-10,000 years ago than the position that humans evolved from ape-like ancestors approximately 2-4 million years ago. No evidence exists of any civilization before roughly at most about 10,000 years ago, and the earliest known civilizations are very complex. The world population was relatively small from the start of recorded history and rapidly increased. At the beginning of the Christian era, the total human population was estimated at only 200-300 million, a reasonable value given that all humans came from two persons that lived about 4 millennia previously. Conversely, this is an incredibly small population if humans and their immediate ancestors have lived on the earth for about 2 million years as argued in evolution theory. The most evolutionarily advanced of all species would have certainly reproduced during this 2 million years to a number far beyond a mere 200-300 million, the number of persons added to the world population today in about a week.