Population Estimate in Sistan on the Basis of Ethno-archaeological Studies

From the end of 1960’s decade when Processual Archaeology was emerged until now, Ethno-archaeology has reconstructed economicæ social, technological and ideological structures of the past societies. Nowadays, population estimating of ancient societies is one the most important matter in archaeology. Statistical analysis of ethno-archaeological data especially architectural records known from todays’ villages is one of the way of demography in archaeology. The region of Iranian Sistan is very important in ethno-archaeological point of view because of its high archaeological and ethnological capacities. To obtain the targets of this investigation, we studied villages of Sistan in geology and ethnology respects and in original rustic life range. Then, three villages named Vāselān, Abbasābād Piri and Karkoo were selected for ethno-archaeological researches. On the basis of this survey we can estimate the average of population in Sistan 38 person per hectares. Inserting some parameters such as settlement size and pattern, livelihood and crafts specialization the writers have added half of this estimation to it and conjectured that the average population of Shahr-e-sokhteh has been 57 person per hectares. To avoid any possible errors we recommend ± 5. Therefore, Shahr-e-sokhteh has had a population between 4200-5000 individual during its peak of magnificence in period II. This estimation has confirmed the viewpoint of anthropologist.