Until about 12,000 to 11,000 years ago, when agriculture and animal domestication emerged in southwest Asia and in Mesoamerica, all peoples were hunters and gatherers. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Hunting and gathering was humanity's first and most successful adaptation, occupying at least 90 percent of human history. Until 12,000 years ago, all humans lived this way. (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers)