Demographic and socio-economic situation of the nomadic population of Chervleny Yar area in the middle of the 14th century

The article attempts to identify the probable number of people who could have lived in the Don- Khoper interfluve in the middle of the 14th century. The results of demographic observations are based on natural resources, historical and archaeological realities of the region, special characteristics of nomadic economy. The area between the Don and the Khoper in the middle of the 14th century was an administrative unit of the ulus of Jochi (the Horde). The information about the territorial entity was preserved in the Metropolitan Charters for Sarai and Ryazan eparchies. Thanks to contemporary archaeological studies of this area, the nomadic and sedentary population can be claimed to have existed in that area in the middle of the 14th century. The nomadic territory of Chervleny Yar was bounded by the Don in the West, by Khoper in the East, by the mouth of the Hopper in the South, and by the most northern nomadic burials of that period. The information about natural resources of the steppes can be the basis of the demographic model designed. The data of ethnology, history, archaeology and ecology are used as a basis. The author analyzes the provision of the nomads with food as biological resources of the ecosystem between the Don and the Khoper rivers. To calculate the probable number of the population, the author takes into account the health calorie intake, the average number of livestock per person in nomadic communities, the size of territory under consideration and the availability of forage for livestock. All the data for calculating the number of population are collected in the Table. Possible number of nomadic population of the Chervleny Yar in the middle of the 14th century can make 26,042-69,444 people, on the condition of the minimum possible yield and optimal load on the ecosystem between the Don and the Khoper. The indicated number refers to the group of the population that never left the area between the Don and the Khoper and conducted their economy in the confines of the specified bounds. The calculations do not take into account possible migration and other demographic factors. This attempt of counting is preliminary and purely hypothetical.