November
17, 1995.
Dear
Mr Plant,
I
am very happy to receive your kind letter of September 7. It is a real
surprise and is generous of you to send me your valuable investigation on the
domestic fowl origin. Some comments of mine will be given below.
First,
I would like to mention that I have good and interesting contacts all over the
world. I mean for example Mr Hans Schippers and Mrs Anna C.Banning-Vogelpoel
from The Netherlands, Prof Willard Hollander and Mr Loyl Stromberg from the
USA, Prof Roy Crawford and Prof Edmund Hoffmann from Canada, Mr Björn Hedman
from Sweden, Dr Elio Corti from Italy, and many others.
In
October I had a pleasant opportunity to meet your Italian friend Dr Elio Corti
personally during his visit in Moscow. It should be told that this opportunity
was rare and I appreciate his willingness and patience in realizing this
chance. As for me, it was one of the deepest impressions in my life and,
frankly speaking, Dr Corti is a unique man, one of few I have ever met. In the
course of that Moscow sojourn we took part in the International Workshop on
Studying Natural Populations at the N.K.Koltsov Institute of Developmental
Biology, visited Dr Irina Moiseyeva at the N.I.Vavilov Institute of General
Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, met Dr Alexandr Blistanov, Republican
Category Expert in Cynology, Trophies of the Chase and Fowl, visited the
Museum of Darwinism, Tretyakov Art Gallery, Moscow Kremlin, Bird Market,
Interregional Centre 'Plemptitsa' ('Breeder Poultry') and many other
interesting places.
I
am sorry that Dr Corti experienced some confusion due to either specific
features of Moscow, Russia, Russian people and Russian life. But I think
somewhat of his experience is helpful and will allow to extend his contacts
all over the world.
Re
your surveying the history of chicken origin, I greatly appreciate your
results. It is an excellent attempt to analyze available facts and findings
relevant to the problem and synthesize an original view to this vague subject
of domestic fowl domestication. As to the text itself, it is reading like a
thrilling detective story. To my mind, your reviews and views are absolutely
fairly and deservedly cited in Crawford's 'Poultry Breeding and Genetics'
(1990). Although I have not finished reading all three books you sent me, I
would like to express some of my thoughts and propositions.
The
Part 2 (1984) is rather sharply interrupted on the Page 26, the conclusions
being not presented, though indicated in the contents as given on Page 27 (not
existing). I guess that it would be better if every chapter and part would end
with clean-cut conclusions and assumptions.
A
hereditary scheme on Page 7 might be accompanied by gene symbols according to
the Mendelian laws as follows:
P
Rose X
Pea
R/R
p+/p+
r+/r+ P/P
¯
F1
Walnut
X
Walnut
R/r+
P/p+
R/r+ P/p+
¯
F2
Walnut
Rose
Pea
Single
9
3
3
1
R/- P/-
R/- p+/p+
r+/r+
P/- p+/p+ r+/r+
On
that same page you described the blue eggshell gene O. In Crawford's 'Poultry
Breeding and Genetics' the estimate of linkage between this gene and pea comb
gene P is revised to be four map units and the major pigments responsible for
the blue or green shell colour are reported to be biliverdin, a zinc chelate
of biliverdin, and the protoporphyrin IX, a haemoglobin porphyrin found in
brown shells.
The
white/brown shell colour is inherited as a multifactorial trait and may be
influenced by modifying genes (Benjamin, 1920; Punnett and Bailey, 1920). So
Professor G.F.Carter's suggestion on Page 9 that white is all colours, brown
the result of a red-blue mix, and blue the result of suppressed red is not
correct.
Are
you familiar with Chapter 1, 'Origin and History of Poultry Species', from the
book 'Poultry Breeding and Genetics' edited by Crawford (1990) and the
following article: West, B., and Zhou, B.-X. (1989) Did chickens go north? New
evidence for domestication. World's Poultry Sci.J.,
45: 205-218.
These
materials confirm, supplement and expand your research. For example, Barbara
West and Ben-Xiong Zhou described 90 sites in Eurasia with evidence for
domestic fowl before the 1st century AD and postulated that the earliest
European material may be derived from China via Russia that is in accordance
with Prof L.H.Jeittless (1873) quoted by Houwink (Page 4 of your Supplement to
Part 2,1985).
As
to Victor Hehn's quoted remark on that same page that "Slavonians and
Lithuanians have always lived apart from the Teutons, they give the chicken
another name", please find enclosed my translation from a Russian article
by T.Auerbakh where you can discover some additional information on the
subject.
On
Page 10 of the Supplement you mentioned the Latin name of bean goose as Anser
fabilis L. but the second word should be written fabalis.
Chow
Ben-shun cited by yourself further on Page 11 is more known as Ben-Xiong Zhou.
This is the same man. But I should note that neither he and West nor Crawford
(1990) indicated in their above papers the recoveries of chicken bones in
Northeast Thailand.
In
addition to reviews of yours, West and Zhou (1989) and Crawford (1990), I am
enclosing an information on the chicken recoveries in Siberia. It seems to me
that they are unknown for English speaking and reading public.
Herewith
please also find a copy of Moiseyeva's article on the hierarchical system of
the species Gallus gallus. The
address of Dr Moiseyeva is:
Dr
Mrs I.G. Moiseyeva
N.I.Vavilov
Institute of General Genetics
Russian Academy of Sciences
3 Gubkin Street, GSP-1, Moscow 117809, Russia
Do
you know one more paper on the subject written by the famous earlier
geneticist C.B.Davenport: Davenport, C.B. (1914) The origin of domestic fowl.
J.Heredity, 5.
Unfortunately,
I have not its copy and do not know numbers of pages. All I am aware of is
that in that paper the existence of another extinct species, Gallus giganteus,
is assumed which might be a wild ancestor of the domestic fowl that marked the
beginning of the Malay breed.
When
Dr Corti and I were in Moscow, we failed to find one old Russian geneticist,
Professor Serghei G.Petrov, an alive legend. He was born on December 18, 1903
and collaborated with another famous Russian geneticist, Professor Alexandr
S.Serebrovsky. By the by, Petrov worked at the Institute of Genetics (now
N.I.Vavilov Institute of General Genetics) where he prepared the Doctor of
Biologic Sciences Thesis 'Origin and Evolution of the Domestic Fowl' (1944).
So, it would be very interesting to establish contacts to him but I am not
sure about his today's mental condition and knowledge of English. His
addresses are:
Professor
Serghei G. Petrov or
Professor Serghei G. Petrov
Apt.16,
22 Bazovskaya Street
Apt.34, Block 2
Moscow 127412, Russia
45 Dmitrovskoye Shosse Moscow 127550, Russia
Maybe,
Dr Moiseyeva could assist in this matter and find him or/and his DSc Thesis.
Please
do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance.
Anticipating
the receipt of your reply.
With
kind regards.
Yours
sincerely,
Enclosures
P.S.
Could you help me in looking for any information about the cape barren goose, Cereopsis
novaehollandiae Lantham, ostensibly domesticated in Australia.
Poultry
Farming in Ancient Siberia*
By
R.Nikolayev
From
the Russian magazine: Ptitsevodstvo [Poultry Farming]
No.6,
p.48, 1957
(Translated
by M.N.Romanov)
In
1951 the archaeological expedition of Moscow University worked in Altaian
Steppe in Khakasia**. It carried out excavations of the burial vaults of
III-IV centuries AD. In one of them the remains of clothes, plaster masks,
dishes and other subjects were discovered which were intended by ancient
people for furnishing their relatives left for the next world. The deceased
were even provided with food-stuffs. A white mass lain with the thick layer
near the burials attracted the archaeologists' attention. What is this? Is
this really egg shell? The finding was carefully packed and delivered in
Moscow where the scholars determined that these were really remains of
domestic fowl eggs. Now the explorers paid a special attention to bronze pins
of II-I centuries BC found in Khakasia and decorated with the depictions of
seating cocks (see a drawing). The earlier findings of leather applications
depicting cocks from ancient Altaian burial-mounds were remembered, too. Then
long before Christ, at the Tagarsky Age, peoples of Southern Siberia bred
domestic fowl. Art of poultry breeding may be borrowed by Siberian population
from China where already in the III century BC ducks and chickens were
utilized, if one takes into account that Southern Siberia was closely
connected with China.
In
the VI-X centuries AD poultry breeding was kept on by old Khakasians,
descendants of Tagarsky people. There are depictions of searching chickens on
Soulekskaya Rock related to those times. Later on, P.S.Pallas, visited Siberia
in the XVIII century, noted that amidst the Khakasian tribe of Koibals
"many... have wooden houses in the winter and among those living in
yurtas some keep chickens".
In
the literature of XIX century there are indications that Khakasians raised
various poultry including geese, ducks, turkeys and chickens. In the XVIII
century chickens were also bred by Khantians (Khants) near the river Ob. It is
interesting that the name of chickens in Khakasian, "tagakh" or
"tan'akh", is very close to that in Khantian "tavakh".
Possibly such a coincidence is due to having gone back to a common old root.
History
of poultry farming in Siberia corroborates once more that from time immemorial
Siberian peoples laid the foundations of a high, distinctive culture that has
flourished brightly nowadays.
Fig.:
Bronze pins with depicted cocks
*
The article was reprinted from the newspaper 'Krasnoyarsky komsomolets',
Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
**
A region situated on the left-bank side of Upper Yenisei river and
administratively formed Khakasian Autonomous Region in the southwest of
Krasnoyarsk Territory. The regional administrative centre is Abakan (M.Romanov).
EXCAVATIONS
FROM 'GREAT SOVIET ENCYCLOPAEDIA' (GSE)
(Briefly
translated by M.N.Romanov)
GSE,
2nd ed., Vol.2, 1950: "Altai ... and adjacent to it territories were settled several
millenaries ago by a number of local, ancient Asiatic nationalities that later
on amalgamated with different Turkic and then Mongolian tribes. In the course
of many centuries the Altaians did hunting, stock-breeding, partly
crop-growing as well as mining. The Altaian goods from iron, copper, silver,
gold, and various precious stones got into China, Turkistan, Iran as well as
Eastern Europe".
GSE,
3rd ed., Vol.25, 1976: "Tagarsky
Culture, an archaeological culture, spread in the VII-III centuries BC in
Minusinsk Hollow, area of Krasnoyarsk and eastern part of Kemerovo Region. Its
name derived from Tagarsky Island in Yenisei river near Minusinsk. The
Scythian type of arms, horse attire, bronze cauldrons and mirrors as well as
the animal style in arts were inherent in T.C. The area of T.C. dispersion is
one of the largest seats of bronze-foundry production in Eurasia. The T.C.
monuments are earth burial-mounds. Physical type of T.C. people is Europeoid".
(This
information may point out that in the past the considered part of Siberia had
stable connections with both China and countries located to the west including
Eastern Europe, i.e.
these good trade relations might facilitate the dispersion of poultry from
China via Altai (as an intermediate site) to Turkistan and Iran as well as to
Eastern Europe. Thus a new evidence for Jeittless-Houwink-West-Zhou theory may
be taken from these facts and Khakasian findings.