An Attempt to Calculate the Number of Inhabitants in Relation to the Social Dimension in Neo-Babylonian Residential Architecture on the Example of Babylon

Abstract

In the article, I attempt to estimate the number of inhabitants of Neo-Babylonian households based on archaeological data based on the example of Babylon (Neo-Babylonian period: 1100/1000–539 BCE). In order to discover how the household or an individual room was used, we must reconstruct the way that a household functioned. However, since no households can be found in archaeological research, it is necessary to turn to ethnographic sources. The article has been divided into three parts. The first part contains key information on households in the Neo-Babylonian period, indicated on the basis of ethnographic sources and compared with archaeological remains. In the second part of the article, I analyse various mathematical formulas used to calculate the number of residents on the basis of archaeological data. The third part comprises a discussion presenting my own mathematical formulas regarding the collected data.

Keywords

• babylon
• house
• household
• neo-babylonian period
• population
• merkes