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

11-9-1980

Dear Professor Olsen,

Thank you for your letter of August 29th and the information contained therein. I am pleased to hear that you are also interested in the ancestry and origin of the domestic chicken. It is without doubt a challenging subject and I feel worthy of attention. Perhaps some answers in this field would also provide links in the field of the distribution of man himself.

I am sure that your trip to China proved interesting and the fact that chicken bone was unearthed at the Pan-p’o site could be of importance.

I am enclosing some photostat material from Finsterbusch (1929) and Darwin’s Variation of plants and animals under domestication. Perhaps if you still have the chicken bone from China on hand you may find time to compare it with this material. This could assist in my theory of the 3 species, the Asiatics (Brahma, Cochin, Langshan) apparently evolved in China. I am inclined to believe that bone found in China should follow the pattern of the bone as described by Finsterbusch of the Malay species as the Asiatics were not flyers as were the Bankivoids.

Thank you for the comments on no pre-Columbian chicken bones in the Americas. From Professor Carter on pre-Columbian chicken in Man across the sea he mentions that Dillman Bullock found chicken bones on Mocha Island, Chile, but although the bones were identified by the Smithsonian Institution as Gallus, no dating was given. In a recent communication from Professor Carter he advised me he had done little work on the pre-Columbian chicken since 1971 when he did the treatise. This is unfortunate indeed.

You mentioned Dr Pierce Broadkord I recently wrote to him on this subject and am hoping to receive a reply in the not too distant future. I am hoping that information may come to hand from both Mr Specht on the Watom Island bone and Professor Higham on the NE Thailand bone. Information also on the identification of the Pan-p’o bones could also assist in putting a few loose ends together.

I find the problem arising from this study is that a little more information keeps coming to hand and I have delayed putting together notes but after getting them together probably something else will turn up. However I will do something shortly in this regard and hope for the best.

I am also enclosing part of the notes I put together some little time ago on the history of the Pekin or Cochin Bantam. They perhaps will be of interest to you.

If you do hear of any chicken bone discoveries apart from what I already am aware of, I would appreciate hearing from you. I will certainly keep you advised of anything in the field that comes my way.

One thing that does seem odd (from Carter page 200) that the diffusion of the chicken in South America was very rapid after 1519. I would imagine that the local Indian population would not move very far from their own areas which would naturally make the diffusion fairly slow.

The blue egg chicken (Araucana) as far as I know has only ever been found in South America, therefore if there were no pre-Columbian chickens there a mutation must have occurred since 1519!!

Thor Heyerdahl in correspondence told me the chickens laid blue eggs on Easter Island when he was there but of course Easter Island had taken in contact with Chile over quite a period. There were chickens on Easter Island in 1722 when discovered by Roggeveen which were described as being like those of the Vierlanden which is apparently an agricultural area adjacent to the city of Hamburg. I have yet to discover what these chickens from the Vierlanden looked like but am working on it. Therefore there is still a lot for us to discover in the field but hopefully the facts may eventually become apparent.

Once again thank you for the information and interest. It is much appreciated. I will keep in touch.

Sincerely yours,