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Re: Ioudaios: Population at Qumran (fwd)
> Has anyone calculated the amount
>of flour it (the mill) could produce, and hence the population the site could
>comfortably support? Failing that, does anyone know of a reference that
>deals with early mills and their output?
>
>Note that establishing the output would determine both an upper and a
>lower estimate for the population, since one would not build a mill with
>a capacity greatly in excess of its predicted demand.
>
>jds
Assuming that the population of Qumran had to mill its own grain. But is it
not possible that they could have bought supplies from En Gedi? After all,
they had a treasury for something, didn't they- which means they needed
money for something. And if they could not grow grain (which seems likely)-
then it means they would have to purchase it. And if they purchsed it, why
not purchase it ground into meal already?
Thus, the amount of grain that their mill could supply would really not be
much help in predicting population.
Jim West