Re: (TFT) Orcs on Easter Island (zooming in toward a village)

["Jay Carlisle" <Jay_Carlisle@charter.net>]

bOf the roughly 10,000 souls per tribe about half are females and half are 
males.
Of the roughly 5000 males about half are working aged adults (~2500), with 
about four fifths of the remainder composed of children (~2000) and the 
other fifth of the remainder being elderly (~500).b

I prefer it when the little people tell me stories while I sleep instead of 
lecturing me about my numbers all night.

Itbs my own fault.

bAt a birth rate of 3 surviving children per fertile couple this time-span 
allows roughly 50 couples to reach a population of roughly 30,000 souls in 
about 14 to 16 generations from the original 100.b

That may be true, but the numbers might be outside the ballpark set up this 
way.

2500 working aged males and 2500 working aged females is 2500 couples.
In those roughly 2500 homes there are an additional 5000 individualbs 
existent, meaning only 4 people per household on average.

b& hummm
Itbs not 5 people per household, but then again it might be a little 
unreasonable to expect all fertile women to have their 3 surviving children 
all at onceb& I suppose I could allow them a break every once and awhile.
This is still gonna have implications for birth rates, population growth, 
and population half-life, but it looks like I can use the figure of 2500 
homes as a base to start distributing tribes around the island.

Ibm gonna have to define some terms for map work here.

Dispersed settlements are areas without any centralizing location present in 
other settlement types.
These are generally newly settled areas that are largely undeveloped but can 
also be ranges of poorer quality land or exhausted soils, etc.

Hamlets are settlements gathered around a production area.
Typically a dozen or so homes are clustered around either a secondary 
production structure like a mill or tapa house, or an area of primary 
resources like a fishery or a peat bog.

Villages are large hamlets with at least one tertiary production structure.
Traditionally this building was a church, but could be a public house, 
meeting hall, general store, town wizards, or other service oriented 
structure likely to attract individuals from surrounding hamlets from time 
to time.

Towns are large villages with a regular common market where excess local 
produce can be sold or traded.
Generally towns are the smallest settlements with a permanent government 
presence, like a mayor, etc.

Cities are large towns with a regional governmental seat and the tertiary 
production that supports it.
The Count of a County would reside here with his court for example, along 
with scribes, tailors, cooks, and other professions supporting government 
and the court.

These categories are much more weighted toward the function of the 
settlement rather than the total number of people living there, although a 
minimum population is still implied to provide the increased workforce.
On Rapa Nui the actual populations will be a lot smaller than what is 
typically thought of for most of these settlement types, but the functions 
are still the same and retain their strategic importance.
The actual physical size of the island does a lot more to limit settlements, 
being too small for much in the way of dispersed settlement and probably not 
requiring many towns due to very short transport distances.

Allowing 10 to 20 households (40 to 80 people on average) for a hamlet could 
distribute the population in about 150 settlements.
I wonder if that would work?
Water on the island is an interesting subject, but for the moment Ibll just 
mention again that Ibve centered each tribe around one of the three 
freshwater lakes located on each corner of the triangular shaped isle.
Because of the roughly equal distribution of these bodies of water itbs not 
a big leap to give each tribe dominion over about a third of the island 
each, or about 20 square miles for each tribe.
Homogeneously distributed the separation between hamlets over this area 
would be roughly 2 football fields, dropped down to around 100 yards if 
about half the islands area is reserved for other purposes.
(Of note, if each household was distributed homogeneously across 10 square 
miles the separation approaches 600 feet)
So Ibm gonna have to consolidate.

There are a number of different ways to go about this.
Abstractly I could lay out 9 square miles in a square and place 16 villages 
of around 150 homes (around 600 total population) at the vertices separated 
by a mile from their closest neighbor.
(compare to the Bendwyn map with around 50 to 60 unmarked structures that 
could be read as private homes)
Using the space information Ibve already talked about in the last post each 
of these villages would occupy about 10 acres of area more or less.
This sounds doable, especially considering that therebs room for more 
consolidation around natural resource areas and the Chiefs village.

So itbs time to take a good look at some maps.

The three freshwater lakes on the island are located in the calderas of the 
three extinct volcanoes that formed the landmass.
There are no free flowing creeks or streams present which usually indicate 
where larger settlements would be located but the climate is so rainy that 
little irrigation is required and homes away from easy access to the lakes 
need only dig a simple pit-cistern to maintain a basic local water supply.
1 cubic inch of rainfall is over a quarter of a million pounds or over 100 
tons of water per acre.
Easter Island averages about 3 to 4 inches of rain per month, a little more 
in winter (sometimes as strong storms) and a little less in summer but the 
island experiences rainfall year round.
Still, the thick plant growth that can be seen on the lakes in Google Earth 
are totora reeds used in boathouse construction so they not only represent a 
freshwater resource they also contain an non-land based construction 
resource.
And, of course, the moai themselves (not the hats) came from tuff at Rano 
Raraku.
Then therebs the obsidian for cutting tools and spear points.
Then therebs the high ground advantage, all of which makes these lakes very 
attractive as a tribes largest settlement.

Speaking of the moai, the basic idea was a moai site per village.
A quick count has 25 to 53 sites, (depending on what map I use), located 
mainly along the coast.
Many seem to be associated with locations from which large double hulled 
canoes can be launched.
As there are almost 900 statues total on the island but most locations 
(apart from a few odd statues and inland locations plus the quarry itself) 
had many moai (15 is the most Ibve seen so far but that may be because the 
site was restored in the 90bs) so Ibd lean toward the Chilean governments 
map count of 53 and add a few from the other two that arenbt on their to get 
to around 60 sites for hamlets and villages.

Ah, further research shows;
bIn total 313 ahu were built and only 125 were moai-carrying ones, most of 
which only had a single statue on them.b
It suggests that the remaining ahu may have had wooden moaib& but I digress.
Ibm considering requiring a village to construct and maintain a Polynesian 
style double hulled canoe for tuna and dolphin fishing.

Ibll probably spend some time putting pins in Google Earth for awhileb&
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