Dear all,
I know this topic opens up a huge can of worms, but are there any universally accepted "guesstimates" of the number of pack, work, and traction animals (oxen, donkeys, mules, etc.) that might populate a typical ancient city. Ideally, I'm searching for something for Imperial Rome (itself with a human population of between 650,000-1,000,000 - although these population figures are always problematic). I've put out feelers to some colleagues working on traffic and transit patterns in Pompeii, to see what they might estimate for that city, but Rome is such a different case. I suspect those more familiar with later contexts might have some estimate for Medieval cities, which could provide some parallel for antiquity. Other pre-industrial cities, globally, might also provide some basis for comparison. At this point anything would help - and it might be nice to get some universal range that zooarchaeologists could agree upon.
Thanks and best wishes,
Michael MacKinnon
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Dr. Michael MacKinnon
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9
Canada
phone: (204) 786-9752
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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