Dr Stanley J. Olsen - Dept of Anthropology
University of Arizona - Tucson

11-8-1980

Dear Dr Olsen,

For some little time I have been carrying out private research in the field of the evolution, history and distribution of the domestic fowl in the hope that I can unearth some information and facts relating to this subject. I have found it very challenging though frustrating but have collected quite a deal of material and also formed some conclusions which however at the moment are somewhat hypothetical although a few leads I have do indicate that more definite conclusions may be arrived at a later date.

I do not have an academic background but have breed Bantam Chickens for some years and became interested their history etc which does appear to be somewhat clouded. I first began researching the Cochin or Pekin Bantam which led me further into the subject and I have become quite absorbed in the study.

It has been for me necessary contact people such as yourself who have studied anthropology, palaeonthology etc in depth in my quest for some positive evidence in this field. I have received heartening support from a number of persons who have assisted where possible.

In a recent letter from Pat Rich of the Earth Sciences Department, Monash University in Melbourne, it was suggested that I contact you as Mr Rich made reference to you in his and Rita Berra’s article in a recent issue of the Australian Museum magazine; the article: Bird history, the first one hundred millions of years.

I have also had correspondence with Professor Ostrom of Yale University who very kindly sent me some of his papers on Archæopteryx etc. I feel that the answers to question of evolution, history and distribution of the chicken must eventually come from people such as yourself, anthropologists and archaeologists.

I have felt for some time that the distribution of the domestic chicken is closely related to the movement of man himself as I guess it would be in order to presume that where man went, his domestic animals went with him?

However, the chicken being what it is, of a frail nature (bone wise) and perhaps fed to other animals it follows that probably little evidence has been of them amongst the excavations.

However I have been advised by Mr Specht Curator of anthropology at the Australian Museum in Sydney that chicken bone was unearthed at Watom Island, New Britain, and from Professor Higham of the Otago University in New Zealand I have received papers of the findings in NE Thailand also of chicken bones.

Following on the evidence of Finsterbusch (1929) who over many years made a study of Game Fowl it would be interesting to learn the exact nature of these birds. Finsterbusch put forward the argument that instead of all the domestic chicken be descending from the Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus Bankiva ) there were in fact 2 species or subspecies, Bankiva being one and the Malay fowl the other, both perhaps stemming from a common perhaps extinct ancestor.

Charles Darwin suggested that all chicken descended solely from Bankiva. With all credit to Darwin, he was not aware of Mendel’s discoveries in the field of genetics. As Finsterbusch suggests there are so many differences between the Bankivoids and the Malays it becomes hard to believe that the differences were only caused by mutation. Finsterbusch also presented evidence that the bone structure between the Bankivoids and the Malays was also quite different, one being a flyer, the other a runner.

I am inclined to go one step further in that I believe that another species or subspecies could also be added, that is the Asiatics (Cochin, Brahma and Langshan). They are so much different again from the other two mentioned. Mr Specht advised that he is hoping to get hold of the chicken bone from Watom Island and perhaps identify it from Finsterbusch’s account. I am hoping Professor Higham may do the same with the bones from NE Thailand. If this can be done it may provide a lead as from whence they came and also who brought them.

Therefore I thought perhaps you may be able to give me some advice on recent papers on the subject and also advise me on what avenues I should explore in my search for further information on the subject. Any assistance I can assure you would be very much appreciated. I hope in the not too distant future to put together notes from the material I have obtained together with conclusions I have formed.

I am quite interested in the distribution situation. I don’t think it has been definitely decided with regard to pre-Columbian in the Americas but Thor Heyerdahl certainly proved that it could have been possible.

However I will be interested to receive any advice from you on the subject.

Sincerely yours,