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Population and Settlement Area: An Example from Iran
Author(s) -
Sumner William M.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1989.91.3.02a00060
Subject(s) - settlement (finance) , population , proxy (statistics) , geography , estimator , argument (complex analysis) , consumption (sociology) , archaeology , statistics , demography , mathematics , economics , sociology , social science , biochemistry , chemistry , finance , payment
It can be argued that observed variation in the relationship between settlement area and population, along with uncertainties introduced by the assumption that archeological site area is equal to settlement area, makes efforts to estimate population from site area an impossible task. Such an argument leads to the conclusion that only a relative measure is justified, using site area as a proxy for population, rather than an estimator. However, the requirement for actual population estimates in production, consumption, and land use analysis is more than sufficient justification for a continued effort to develop methods of estimating population from site area.