This is a most interesting correspondence, and I would like to add two thoughts .....
1. Crofting agriculture, and the cattle and sheep numbers to which crofters were restricted - is not a model for earlier societies in Scotland, let alone anywhere else. (I can supply refs .....)
2. It is unlikely that cattle in Neolithic Europe were only kept at the household level. As soon as any kind of ranked society emerged, cattle herd sizes must have been the main mark of distinction, which would play havoc with attempts at averaging.
But don't be discouraged from the attempt,
Dale
Dale Serjeantson
Archaeology
School of Humanities
University of Southampton
Southampton SO17 1BJ
UK
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http://www.southampton.ac.uk/archaeology/profiles/serjeantson.html
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5488
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