User talk:RafaelG

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Hope to see you around the Wiki! If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to contact me on my talk page  :)

Joe I 19:48, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

wiki centuries

The wikipedia style for centuries is to use, for example, 17th century or 5th century BC. I thought you would like to know. Rick Norwood 00:03, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you.--RafaelG 00:56, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Largest cities of the world

Hi Rafael,

I was asked by several people to add the source of my info about the largest cities. I see that you have changed my output about Alexandria and Pataliputra. Maybe you could give me your sources, so we can start a discussion about the subject.Daanschr 16:45, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I was researching urban systems for a few years and the estimates that I found and calculated are the ones that I used. I think that these are better estimates, especially for Rome, since most of its estimates put its population on 1 million or more, not such minimalist estimate of only 450,000. And Rome is widelly considered the largest city ever build before the industrial revolution. And Alexandria was much larger than Chang'an in the 2th and 3th centuries BCE, for example, second to an ancient census dated from 32 CE, the city had 180,000 adult male citizens, with put its total population close to 1 million compared to only 240,000 people living in Chang'an at the same time. --RafaelG 17:52, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I am convinced. I have a very limited knowledge about this subject. I have the data on all city articles and added it on articles about years in history as well.--Daanschr 18:00, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

About the largest cities through history

Hi, Rafael! I noticed that you seems to have a problem with Tertius Chandler's study on the largest cities in history, as you removed About.com's article of his research from the Wikipedia's pages about Istanbul and Alexandria.

According to the sources below, the compilation of the population of cities throughout history by Tertius Chandler has long been regarded as a classic among students studying evolution of the world system, and it is a pioneer in this field. It has been used as basic references by many (students/academics). I strongly recommend you this study of ancient world cities done by the faculty from University of Washington. It is influenced by Chandler's earlier effort, and the results are similar.

• Early cities from 3000 BCE to 2000 BCE
• Detailed informations about cities in world history and their growth
• Ancient world cities - the largest cities in the ancient world
• Main page

I think his datas are pretty accurate. I think it wouldn't be featured on About.com if it wasn't well-researched. What do you think? Could you provide alternative informations?

• [1] -- Foryouon 05:15, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Hi. I have, for some years, researched the population estimates of many cities. And I concluded that it is impossible to make accurate estimates about the population of ancient cities, since they are nothing more than estimates and the real numbers are not know. And, since he produced estimates of a very large number cities with little research in individual cities, I believe that his estimates are some of the most inaccurate that we have.

For example, the population of ancient Athens has estimates that range from only 40,000 to 500,000 depending on the tipe of data used to calcule its population like the number of citizens or the area enclosed by its walls.

Rome, for example, had a total walled area of 1370 hectares in the late empire, it was this estimate that Chandler used to calcule its total population in a much earlier period, so he simply assumed a density of 35,000 people for square kilometer (based on arqueological evidence of Pompeii) and got his estimate of 450,000. But, we do not know the total urban area of the ancient city, since its walls were build in the late 3th century, when the population of the city was much reduced if compared to its peak 200 years earlier. Also, his estimates are very minimalistic for some cities (like the cities of the Roman Empire) and very generous for others (like Corduba and Bagdah).

For example, his estimates of the 4 largest cities in the Early Roman Empire are these:

Rome: 450,000

Alexandria: 250,000

Antioch: 150,000

Carthage: 100,000

Compare to these drastically different ones:

http://www.tulane.edu/~august/H303/handouts/Population.htm

Also, all pages that you posted links off, I already knew off, and they all have different and contracditory estimates.

All then are much lower than nearly all other estimates that I have found. And they all contradict with ancient numbers that we have, like the number of grain recipients. --RafaelG 16:10, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Ancient Rome

Hi. I noticed your recent edit to the Ancient Rome article, in which you provided some statistics for the portion of the population of Italy that was under Roman jurisdiction. Thank you for your contribution, but could you please provide a citation? Again, thank you. Galanskov 15:14, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

OK them.--RafaelG 15:32, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Technological history of the Roman military

could you please name your source on the Romans and their use of steel. Thank you Wandalstouring 18:53, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Industrial Revolution

Hi, The GDP graph in the Industrial Revolution article does not estimate GDP over long periods of time, it estimates GDP for single years which are long past. I've no clue if it's right. (Frankly the label in the graphic is bad, it does not show world GDP, except in a single bar color, it shows regional GDP. At a glance it's misleading, but if you actually read the labels it's (possibly) informative.) --kop 04:15, 7 August 2007 (UTC)