Hiya All, I just signed up, and am still thinking about what sort of society to produce. In the meantime, I can perhaps help a bit... Eric wrote to Michelle on the list: "I don't know about the numbers, though...i need to read up a little on the mongols. I'll do that this weekend. I think we need to figure out how many animals it would take to support a person. A population of 50,000 nomads is cumbersome, but not unwieldy. I do not think that they would look for a forest home, though...that would be too drastic of a social change, unless there was some prophecy, omen or something...." Nomads, travelling on grassy plains, typically manage a popular densiity of 10-50 people per square mile. So, 50,000 people would require anything between 1,000 to 5,000 square miles. Taking a middle figure, 2,500 square miles, this is an area equivalent to a circle about 84 miles, 130 km, across. I haven't noticed a scale on the map, so can't tell if there's room or not. Obviously, the area required drops right down in more fertile, well-watered regions. This figure is for grassy plains, such as what we see in Kazakstan. More arid regions such as the Syrian Desert, or Somali savannah, would have less people. More fertile regions such as the mixed grasslands and temperate forests found in the New England part of North America, would have many more people. As to how many animals they'd have, it's basically one-to-one. Supposing pure cattle; each cow will, on average, produce one calf surviving healthy to adulthood. In two years, it's grown to a beast which can provide a quarter-ton of meat products (assuming your people eat the offal, as well). A quarter-ton of meat annually will easily support a person. Adding in the milk, gives a very high-protein diet, which will typically be supplemented by fruits gathered, etc. Assuming they've discovered salting or smoking their meats, they can trade their surplus (probably, one-fifth their meat production) for other foods. If they herd other animals, you get higher numbers. Goats produce a number of kids each year, but have less meat. Similarly with sheep, and so on. It's not at all difficult to imagine them settling in a forest. All you have to do is suppose that a rival tribe drove them off their traditional lands. That's where all the historical barbarian invasions of Europe came from; they started off in China, where one group would chase another to their west, who'd overrun another to their west, and so on, until the Hun, Mongols, Bulgars or Turks found themselves knocking at the gates of Rome. Such a tribe doesn't go from nomadic to building cities overnight. In any case, our picture of the nomads as continually moving is inaccurate; they'd typically graze their herds throughout the summer, then a month or so before winter set in, prepare huts, slaughter most of their beasts, smoke or salt the meat, and so on. At least four months of the year would be spent in wooden or stone huts. They jsut didn't build permanent settlements. Unlike modern man, they knew that grazing beasts on the same spot for years on end would deplete the soil, build up the parasites and diseases that affect the beasts, and so on. Best regards, Kyle --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! News - Today's headlines---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
