R Classica&Christiana _nr7_2_2012_curbe - Facultatea de Istorie ...

DEMOGRAPHIC ASPECTS FROM ULPIA TRAIANA SARMIZEGETUSA
more advanced in their analysis of available data than ancient demography
maybe because ancient information is prone to errors.
Presently ancient demography tries to establish research domains,
ways of research and methods. The objectives of ancient demography
are essentially similar to those of plain demography mentioned
above but with the amendment of time frame of the analysis.
Usually the difference between ancient demography and historic
demography consist in the nature of the used source. So it was
agreed that historic demography will use written sources and ancient
demography will use material sources.
Ancient demography was developed in two main directions:
Establishing the numbers of the individuals from a specific
territory in a determined time frame using all available archaeological
data.
Estimating demographic parameters with the help of age and
sex determinations made of discovered skeletons
The study of Roman Dacia population is not a subject not researched
before, some breakthroughs were made before but these researches
lack a socio-demographic perspective.
Estimating the size of the population of a settlement using just
one method is to be avoided and all the scholars have been avoiding
such approach and we will do it also.
For instance for the analysis of Roman Alexandria Diana Delia
propose four criteria to be used for establishing the size of the population
5 and they are density, town area, size of suburbs and the distance
of neighbouring settlements. Nick Kardulias in his own work in
which he tries to establish the size of the population in military ancient
sites elaborates his own criteria 6 : size of dwelling place, total area
of the site, number of houses from the settlement, number of living
spaces and also the number of persons per room. He also theorizes that
the best methods for estimating the size of the population are the size
of the dwelling space and the total area of the site. Using ethnographic
and ethno-archaeological data and method he establishes that an individual
has 10 square meters in such types of settlements. Le Blanc opinionated
that such data must be used with precaution because they
are almost every time different from culture to culture and so they
5 Delia 1989, 275.
6 Kardulias 1992, 278.
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