Palaentology and archaeology are disciplines that traditionally deal with the reconstruction of human origins and history. Recently, however, molecular genetics has come to make increasing contributions to this area. In particular, several data sets indicate that variation of the human gene pool originated in Africa within the last 200,000 years. Furthermore, the study of DNA sequences allows the detection of expansions in population size. Here we briefly summarize and exemplify how DNA sequences can be used to reconstruct the history of populations.