David Goldenberg of MinuteEarth explained the most common causes of death during specific historical eras. This includes Prehistory, the Agricultural (Neolithic) Era, the Urbanization and Trade Era, and the Current Era, along with the causes specific to these particular moments.
About 110 billion people have died throughout human history for millions of different reasons. Some things, though, have killed a lot more people than others, so we’re going to take a historical tour of human death and highlight how the common causes of death changed over time…or didn’t.
There are also three specific causes of death that have appeared throughout every era: homicide, childbirth, and malaria.
Unfortunately, …three killers, which have been on a spree since the dawn of humanity, and have likely dispatched more people than anything else. The first is other humans; childbirth, which has killed more than 5 billion women throughout history…We know from ancient writings and anti-malarial adaptations deep in the human genome that malaria has been killing people since day one.
