Population densities in Roman-Age Europe?

['Jamie Polichak' jamiepolichak@hotmail.com [gothic-l]]

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with earlier populations exceeding later ones, and include that in my comment. It happens all the time. The population of Rome itself is said to have crashed from about a million in the early 4th century to a few hundred thousand in the early 5th century. Many major US cities have had their populations halved since the 1950s-60s. Parts of northern Germany still have fewer people than they did prior to the 30 Years’ War that ended in 1648.

What I doubt is that, if a population of 1.5 million is accurate for 1st C BC, doubling that to 3 million by... when, exactly?

That’s the second doubt. We’re referring to Roman-age European populations as if that were a static period. Even Roman Britain, we have nearly 400 years. So when exactly is the 3 million figure for? 100 AD? 200 AD? 300 AD? how many were left after 410 when the Romans pulled out?

I also said that I had doubts about research from before the mid-late 1990s for reasons already mentioned. To which I will add the use of highly sophisticated satellite systems with ground-penetrating capabilities and resolutions on the m3 level (much better, for the security and military organizations of the nations controlling them). New sites are being found all over the world, and it is looking like the claims of very high populations in the Amazon basin prior to European contact were closer to right than those who claimed it was a green wasteland. 

I’m skeptical about data published in 1996, gathered earlier. We are learning that traditional archaeology and historiography can be critical at the local level, but very poorly calibrated at the regional or continental level. And knowledge of the geographic and human history of the North Sea region has increased vastly in this century, those portions currently dry ground and those currently submerged. There are thousands of pages of extremely finely detailed research data published in the Netherlands. That is a place where climate and demography have clashed for millennia, moreso than just about anywhere else in Europe. 

I have no particular intellectual or otherwise investment in any particular population figures for Roman Britain or anywhere else. 3 million is possible. But so is 2 million. So is a big dip from the 1.5 million around invasion time to 1 million with a rise over the next few centuries from there to 3 million around the end of the 2ndC AD with a decline to 1 million by the early 4thC.

But aside from Britain’s own population, my main concern was using Roman Britain population estimates as a guide for population estimates anywhere but Roman Britain. But especially places that are colder, larger, and more subject to population transitions on the scale of even years much less centuries. 
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