FIRST MEMORANDUM
Historical survey of the waves of the number and density of the population of ancient Palestine

Method of Enquiry

1. Although census-taking was a well known practice in antiquity, the fragmentary data that have reached us do not contain sufficient information to enable us to draw definite conclusions regarding the numbers and fluctuations of the population of Palestine.

In the absence of a detailed census of inhabitants, the simplest way to arrive at an estimated number is to make a census of habitations. Had we had a complete list of the ancient localities of Palestine, we could probably arrive at a fairly reliable estimate.

Unfortunately, no such complete gazetteer for ancient Palestine exists. Lists of place names have been collected from various written sources. Some come under the category of geographical lists; but many of these are fragmentary and incomplete, while others mention only the most salient points of a geographical landscape, or the main localities of a given region. Finally, not all of them belong to the same period: by the time the later lists were drawn up, some localities had ceased to be inhabited, and new settlements had been founded in others. It must also be remembered that many places appear in these sources only incidentally in connection with some historical or literary narrative. Other, and possibly more important places, which have no relation to the story told, are not mentioned. Fresh archaeological discoveries constantly add to our toponymic lists, and demonstrate the unavoidable gaps in our knowledge. To quote but one well-known example: there are about 600 place names in the Old Testament, but only slightly over twenty in the New, although the latter deals with a period in which the country was much more densely inhabited. (See below, pp. 12 fol.)

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