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Reassessing Ancient Populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Abstract

A miscalculation in the analysis of population statistics for the island of Melos made by Wagstaff, Augustson, and Gamble in their work An Island Polity is discussed. A new calculation is made of the areas under agriculture required to support the given population of Melos at a sequence of dates ranging from A.D. 1470 to A.D. 1848. It is argued that the ancient population of Melos could have been supported by a smaller area of arable land than that previously suggested, and that in arriving at this figure the relative fertility of the island should also be taken into account.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1984

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References

Thanks are due to my wife, Jan Motyka Sanders, for her invaluable help in producing this piece, to Richard Catling and the Director of the School, Dr. Hector Catling, for reading drafts of the paper and correcting my grammar. I am especially grateful to the Department of Art History and Archaeology and to the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri at Columbia for funds to support my research in 1983. Responsibility for any mistakes is entirely my own.

Abbreviations:

Allbaugh Allbaugh, L. G., Crete. A Case Study of an Underdeveloped Area (New Jersey 1953)Google Scholar

I.P. Renfrew, C. and Wagstaff, M., An Island Polity. The Archaeology of Exploitation in Melos (Cambridge 1982)Google Scholar

Leake Leake, W. M., Travels in Northern Greece (London 1835)Google Scholar

Slot Slot, B. J., Archipelagos Turbatus. Les Cyclades entre colonisation latine et occupation ottomane c. 1500–1718 (Istanbul 1982)Google Scholar

Leycester Leycester, E. M., ‘Some Account of the Volcano Group of Milo, Anti-Milo, Kimolo, and Polino’, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 22 (1852) 201–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar

1 The work was based on a survey conducted in 1974 and published by Wagstaff, M., Aspects of Land Use in Melos (Southampton, 1976)Google Scholar, and Wagstaff, M., Augustson, S., and Gamble, C., ‘Alternative Subsistence Strategies’, I.P. 172–80.Google Scholar

2 I.P. 107 and Naval Intelligence Handbook, Greece (London 1944) 3.

3 Leake, iii. 78, Slot, Appendix 4, and Leycester.

4 For areas under cultivation see below, Table 11. For problems in agricultural innovation, see Finlay, G., The History of Greece under Ottoman and Venetian Domination (London 1856) 28.Google Scholar

5 Chisholm, M., Rural Settlement and Land Use (London 1968)Google Scholar. For various studies employing site catchments see I.P. 175.

6 Ministère de T Économic Nationale, 1918.

7 Yield in kg per ha–seed requirement per ha = kg available. Seed requirement throughout I.P. was taken to be 175 kg per ha.

8 where calorie values are: wheat 3,330 cal per kg, barley 2,700 cal per kg, vegetables 1,990 cal per kg, and the minimum calorie requirement of an adult in the Near East is 876,000, Food Supplies and Population Growth (London, Royal Statistical Society, 1963) 28.

9 Allbaugh, Table A51.

10

11 I.P. Tables 14.5 to 14.8 inclusive.

12 I.P. 139–142. For Phylakopi, the two figures reflect the range of population estimated for the Late Bronze Age from the area of the site. For Ancient Melos, the population is derived from the kleroi, or householders, settled following the sack in 416 B.C. assuming six people per household. The area required to support the populations = Estimated population × Area required to support one person.

13 Chisholm, op. cit. (n. 5) and Higgs, E. and Vita Finzi, C., ‘Prehistoric economics: a territorial approach’, in Higgs, E. (ed.) Papers in Economic Prehistory 2736 (Cambridge 1972).Google Scholar

14 A number of sources give population estimates for the island, especially for the late 17th and early 18th cc; only a representative sample was included in the table: Rizzardo, Giacomo, La Presa di Negroponte fatta dai Turchi ai Veneziani nel MCCCCLXX. ed. by Cicogna, E. (Venice 1844)Google Scholar; Francesco Lupazzolo, ‘Isolario’ (1638), MS. in British Library, Lans-downe 792. Quoted by Hasluck, F., ‘Depopulation in the Aegean Islands and the Turkish Conquest’, BSA 17 (19101911) 160Google Scholar; de Thevenot, M., Voyages in Harris, J., ed., A Compleat Collection of Voyages and Travels, 2 vols. (London 1705) ii. 418–19Google Scholar; Randolph, B., The Present State of the Islands in the Archipelago (Oxford 1687) 33Google Scholar; Thompson, C., The Travels of the Late Charles Thompson Esq. (London 1752) i. 163–5Google Scholar; Guys, M., Voyape litteraire de la Grèce (Paris 1883) 183Google Scholar; van Krienen, P., Breve Descrizione dell'Arcipelago (Livorno 1773) 11Google Scholar; Savary, M., Letters on Greece (London 1788) 438Google Scholar; Olivier, G. A., Voyage dans l'Empire Ottoman (Paris 1801) 230Google Scholar; M. Leake, iii. 78; Chouliarakis, M., Γεωγραφική, Διοικητική καὶ Πληθυσμιακή Ἐξέλιξς Ἑλλáδος 1821–1971 (Athens 1971) i. 9.Google Scholar

15 de Tournefort, J. P., Voyage into the Levant (London 1718) 171Google Scholar, d'Arvieux, L., Mémoires (Paris 1735) 327–8Google Scholar, LeBruyn, C., Voyage au Levant (Paris 1725) i. 54–6Google Scholar, and Leake, iii. 78.

16 Above, n. 3.

17 Leycester, op. cit. (n. 3). 40,000 kilos of barley, 20,000 kilos of wheat, and 1,500 barrels of wine, where 1 kilo of barley = 16 okes and 1 kilo of wheat = 22 okes. Doursther, H., Dictionnaire universel des poids et Mesures (Brussels 1840) 365Google Scholar where 1 oke = 1·283 kg.

18 See below, Table 11.

19 Leake, iii. 78. 2,000 kilos of wheat, 12,000–14,000 kilos of barley.

20

21 The figure published in I.P., Table 10–28, is 99,000 kg. This was erroneously derived from an oke-to-kg conversion ratio of 1 028 kg rather than 1·283.

22 Cereal calories consumed each year by a Cretan adult in 1948 were 435,150. The number of kg of wheat required per adult per year is derived by dividing this figure by calories in 1 kg of wheat (3,330).

23 Coronelli, R. M., Archipelago (Venice 1688)Google Scholar, Thevenot, op. cit. n. 14, and Fleuriau, P., Estat des Missions de Greet (Paris 1695).Google Scholar

24 Inalcik, 122–3.

25 Slot, Appendix 4. Istanbul B.A. tt 800.

26 Akçe were small silver coins in standard use in the Ottoman Empire. At the time the tahrir was drawn up, there were 120 akçe to the piastre. Binek was both a measure of volume and area. In the tax listing, a binek was equivalent to c. 1,000 m2 or ha. On Melos local equivalent Muzur was used. See Slot, Appendix 4.

27 100, 447÷20 = 5022·35 binek (c. 502–2 hectares).

28 This was achieved by trial and error in calculations for all the islands. It was observed that fractions of akçe were not used and that half-binek were the smallest unit of land assessed. By substitution of whole akçe values, areas of whole or half binek were sought, which when totalled would sum to c. 5022, e.g. 23,571÷27 = 873. Sometimes few substitutions were necessary and few values feasible; however, where many were possible it was possible to choose the most correct by ascertaining the effect on the figures for other crops and the total of areas.

29 Inalcik, 128. Tournefort, op. cit. (n. 15), 119.

30 Inalcik, 128, n. 4: 12 akçe per 26·66 kg; Braudel, fig. 43: 40 akçe per hl; Braudel, fig. 42: 50.90 g of silver per hl; Leycester; 3.2 dr. per kg. These values were reduced to the value in silver per 100 kg based on the exchange rate at the dates quoted and then transferred back to akçe per 100 kg. From these, an estimate of the eastern Mediterranean price was made that erred, if anything, on the high side.

31 Inalcik, 128 n. 4, wheat 12 akçe per kilo

barley 6 akçe per kilo

vegetables 6–13 akçe per kilo

where 1 kilo = 26–656 kg.

32

33 Yields of between 6:1 and 10:1 for barley and between 4:1 and 8: 1 for wheat are recorded on Tenos in the early 19th c. by M. Saloni, trans. Mavromana, D. M., Ἰστορία τής Τήνου (Athens 1888Google Scholar; originally Paris 1809). My thanks to Richard Catling for drawing my attention to this reference.

34 Tournefort, op. cit. (n. 15) 169.

35 Thevenot, op. cit. (n. 14).

36 Tournefort, op. cit. (n. 15) 161.

37 Tournefort, op. cit. (n. 15), 208, 215, 259, 309, Casola, P., Canon Pietro Casola's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Year 1494, trans. Newett, M. M. (Manchester 1907).Google Scholar

38 Area potentially arable × People supported per ha.

39 See Table 2

40 Randolph, B., The present State ofthe Islandsin the Archipelago (Oxford 1687) 33Google Scholar; Thevenot, op. cit. (n. 14); du Mont, A New Voyage to the Levant (London 1702) 340Google Scholar; Montague, J., A Voyage Performed by the Earl of Sandwich (London, 1799) 34–7Google Scholar; Slot, B. J., ‘καθολική Ἐκκληοία Κιμώλου’, Κιμωλιοκά Ε' (1975) 122Google Scholar; Sir Thomas Sherley, quoted by Hasluck, F. W., ‘Supplementary Notes on British Museum Manuscripts Relating to Levantine Geography’, BSA 13 (1906/1907) 346–7.Google Scholar