Adapted from David Christian, Maps of Time, ISBN 0-520-24476-1 plus The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History, David Hackett Fischer, ISBN 0-19-512121-X

Stages of human Malthusian cycles and technology, agricultural civilizations

1. Technological innovation

2. Population growth afforded by innovation

3. Inflation - price of commodities goes up, rich get richer

4. Overshoot - population exceeds carrying capacity of its environment

5. Dieoff - collapse of civilization into a "dark age"

6. Falling population, rising wages

7. Period of stability