User talk:Angusmclellan/Scotland in the Early Middle Ages

Demographics

Hurrah ! A start I feel that the Alcock numbers are too low. The 1755 ones, given the increase in crop-lands at the expense of grazing, must be higher than at early historical times, and probably also higher than the immediately pre-Black Death period, for the same reason. That England had roughly the same population in 1086 and 1377 and the 1540s doesn't speak directly to the Scottish population, but a figure of 100,000 seems simply too low to be credible for Scotland north of the Forth. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Angusmclellan (talk • contribs) .

No I agree. You can see that from what I wrote in the HMA article. The Alcock estimate is the highest I've seen, but he only has Pictland at 100,000. Firstly, Pictland must have had more than 50% of the population - it did in 1755 - more than half of the Scottish pop lived north of the Tay, and most of the best arable land is in Moray, Easter Ross and Buchan, not south of the Forth. That's why I brought in the Irish figures. Robert Bartlett thinks that England in 1066 had 2,250,000; if England had that, and Ireland had 500,000, it seems absurd to put the Scottish population at 200,000, let alone Thomas' 40,000 for Pictland. Doesn't Tacitus have something like 30,000 Caledonians killed at Mons Graupius? That'd be supreme genocide is Thomas' 40,000 figure could be taken seriously.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Calgacus (talk • contribs) .

I like what you're doing here, a mac. Keep up the good work. Fergananim 14:49, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

references

I notice that "Lynch (2001)" does not exist as a separate reference (it's part of the Broun one), but is referred to by many others (Clancy, Cowan, Hanson), maybe you should just have it as a distinct entry to cover all of them, and add specific notes when you ned to cite specific entries? Circeus 22:08, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Time for launch

Angus, when are you planning to actually apply this article to the main article space? --Mais oui! 12:25, 18 May 2007 (UTC)