CJ wrote:
> In tonights HQ game we were drawing maps of our Wintertop Exile's
> village tula. How much land does a tula cover? I was guessing
about 25
> square miles, so an area 5 miles by 5 miles, but that might be a
little
> small??? I have no idea how large in land area a Sartarite tula
is, and
> I guess the Exiles being primarily Hunters/Herders might be
slightly
> larger? I thought I had seen this mentioned somewhere, but can't
find
> it now!
Notes on some stead sizes:
The Berkshire Doomsday Book entry states:
'If the king sent an army anywhere, one soldier went from five
*hides*, each
hide providing four shillings towards his wages and subsistence for
two
months.'
Although written later this may show how the Anglo-Saxon fyrd was
recruited
and paid for. A *hide* is an administrative term for the amount of
land
considered necessary to support one man and his family. In actuality
the
exact size of a hide was not fixed as different terrain and soil
types would
affect the amount of produce. In Berkshire a hide was measured as
about
forty acres.
The men living in five hides had to club together to equip and pay
for one
of their number to go on campaign. A *hundred* is formed by recuiting
men
from twenty units of five-hides, giving twenty warriors equiped and
supplied
for a summer campaign.
The Vikings used a similar system, one hundred and fifty *carucates*
having
an obligation to provide and raise thirty men.
A capitulary of Charlemagne c.807 A.D. state: 'Each freeman who seems
to
hold five *mansi* shall likewise come to the army.' A mansi being the
equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon hide.
If we take that sixteen carls and their families live and work a
stead, a
stead will have sixteen hides as its cultivated lands. With forty
acres per
hide that is 640 acres per stead.
One acre equals 4046.9m2 so a steads holding will be 2590016 square
metres
is 2.5 square km, or a little over one square mile.
That also means that three warriors from that stead can be sent out
on fire
season campaigns and raids (1 warrior per five-hides). These wariors
will be
equiped and supplied to be away from their homelands for the majority
of the
season. The rest of the carls would fight and protect their lands
should a
raid or attack happen.
Cheers,
DARRAN SIMS
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