Endnote 13 – The Problem of Ai

Y. Shiloh, “The Population of Iron Age Palestine in the Light of a Sample Analysis of Urban Plans, Areas, and Population Density,” BASOR 239 (1980), p. 30; cf. M. Broshi, “Estimating the Population of Ancient Jerusalem,” BAR 04:02. Callaway suggests that the population of the site was 150 (“A Visit with Ahilud,” BAR 09:05). His figure represents only the population of the 20 excavated Iron Age houses. Mine is based on a maximalist assumption that all the “acropolis” area constituted the inhabited town. The presence of public, uninhabited space within a town is built into the density coefficient so that it may be used when the inhabited area is known and is not restricted to excavated areas alone (cf. Shiloh, BASOR 1980, pp. 29–30). The most recent discussion of this topic by Gus W. Van Beek supports the plausibility of Shiloh’s figures (“A Population Estimate for Mareb: A Contemporary Tell Village in Northern Yemen,” BASOR 248 [1982], pp. 61–67, esp. pp. 64–67 and notes 4, 6).