The Djief Hunters Modern Quaternary Research of

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Exploitation on the Bird s Head of Papua Indonesia
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The Djief Hunters Modern Quaternary Research of
Southeast Asia 17 26 000 Years of Rainforest Exploitation
on the Bird s Head of Papua Indonesia Modern
Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 1st Edition
Juliette Pasveer Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Juliette Pasveer
ISBN(s): 9789058096630, 9058096637
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 29.99 MB
Year: 2004
Language: english
 MODERN QUATERNARY RESEARCH IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

VOLUME 17
Series editors: Juliette Pasveer & Ken Aplin
Lake Ayamaru, central Bird’s Head, Papua, Indonesia. Photograph by Johan Jelsma.
 The Djief Hunters 26,000 Years of
Rainforest Exploitation on the Bird’s Head
of Papua, Indonesia

JULIETTE M.PASVEER
Department of Archaeology and Natural History, The Australian
National
University, Canberra, Australia

MODERN QUATERNARY RESEARCH IN

SOUTHEAST ASIA
VOLUME 17

A.A.BALKEMA PUBLISHERS LEIDEN/LONDON/NEW YORK/

PHILADELPHIA/SINGAPORE
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A Catalogue record for the book is available from the Library of Congress
Subsidy for the publication of this book was supplied by the Netherlands Organisation for
Scientific Research (NWO).
Cover illustration: Karst formation on the Ayamaru Plateau. Courtesy Johan Jelsema
Copyright © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication or the information contained herein may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written prior
permission from the publishers.
Although all care is taken to ensure the integrity and quality of this publication and the
information herein, no responsibility is assumed by the publishers nor the author for any
damage to property or persons as a result of operation or use of this publication and/or the
information contained herein.
Published by: A.A.Balkema Publishers, a member of Taylor & Francis Group plc.
www.balkema.nl and www.tandf.co.uk
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to
www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
ISSN 0168–6151
ISBN 0-203-02461-3 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 90-5809-663-7 (Print Edition)

 Contents

List of Figures viii

List of Tables xiii
Preface xvii
Acknowledgements xix

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Origin of the project 1
1.2 Discovery, exploration and archaeological research in the region 3
1.3 Research context and objectives 9
2 The Research Area, Fieldwork Design and Methods of Stratigraphic Analysis 12
2.1 The research area: natural environment 12
2.2 The research area: cultural environment 15
2.3 Field survey 18
2.4 Excavation methods 19
2.5 Analytical methods 20
3 Occupation History of Kria Cave 27
3.1 Description of the cave 27
3.2 Excavation in Kria Cave 28
3.3 Occupation history of Kria Cave 29
3.4 Conclusion 52
4 Occupation History of Toé Cave 54
4.1 Description of the cave 54
4.2 Excavation in Toé Cave 54
4.3 Occupation history of Toé Cave 55
4.4 Conclusion 71
vi

5 Stone Artefacts 91
5.1 Introduction 91
5.2 Methods 91
5.3 The lithic assemblage from Toé Cave 96
5.4 The lithic assemblage from Kria Cave 109
5.5 Summary and conclusion 121
6 Bone Artefacts 127
6.1 Introduction 127
6.2 Methods 128
6.3 Bone artefacts and utilised teeth from Kria Cave 133
6.4 Bone artefacts and utilised teeth from Toé Cave 156
6.5 Discussion 156
6.6 Conclusion 167
7 Prehistoric Exploitation of Food Resources 169
7.1 Introduction 169
7.2 Methods of recovery and identification 170
7.3 The organic assemblages from both sites 173
7.4 Patterns of prehistoric faunal exploitation 191
7.5 Discussion and conclusion 203
8 Prehistoric Exploitation of the Brown Dorcopsis 210
8.1 Introduction 210
8.2 Optimal foraging theory and its implications 210
8.3 Ecology of Dorcopsis muelleri 211
8.4 Intensity of exploitation of Dorcopsis muelleri 213
8.5 Population structure of Dorcopsis muelleri 221
8.6 Body part representation and fragmentation 254
8.7 Summary and conclusion 263
9 Vertebrate Faunal Succession and Environmental Change in Lowland New Guinea 278
9.1 Introduction 278
9.2 Faunal change in the Kria Cave sequence 279
 vii

9.3 Faunal change in the Toé Cave sequence 285

9.4 Faunal succession and environmental change on the Ayamaru Plateau 288
9.5 Late Pleistocene to Holocene environmental change in western New Guinea 294
9.6 Wider comparisons and implications 297
9.7 Conclusion 299
10 Discussion and Conclusion 300

Summary 312
Abstrak 316
References 320
Appendices
1 Human Remains from Kria Cave and Toé Cave, Papua, Indonesia (report by David 338
Bulbeck)
2 Archaeobotanical Report on Fruits from Kria Cave, Bird’s Head, Papua, Indonesia 357
(report by Kathleen McConnell)
3 Local Knowledge of Various Vertebrate Species in the Ayamaru Region (information 362
gathered by Elimas Kambuaya)
A Fable About the Djief, Swi, Ames and Kadjo (by Elimas Kambuaya) 371
 List of Figures

Figure 1.1. Location of the Indonesian province of Papua, and other places mentioned in the text. 2
Figure 1.2. Location of some of the archaeological and palynological site mentioned in the text, with 6
the earliest associated radiometric dates.
Figure 1.3. The Ayamaru Lakes surrounded by karst hills in the centre of the Bird’s Head. 10
Figure 2.1. Map of the Bird’s Head with the research area and location of the sites. 13
Figure 2.2. One of the Ayamaru Lakes viewed from the air. 14
Figure 2.3. View across Lake Ayamaru, looking towards the southern margin. 15
Figure 2.4. Aerial photographs of Lake Ayamaru. 16
Figure 2.5. Karst formation on the Ayamaru Plateau. 18
Figure 3.1. Kria Cave. Top: rockshelter where the excavation took place. Bottom: early stage of the 28
excavation.
Figure 3.2. Plan of the excavated rockshelter of Kria Cave with the location of the excavation 29
squares.
Figure 3.3. Schematic image of the latex peel from Square 0N0E in Kria Cave. 31
Figure 3.4. Kria Cave, distribution of animal bone through the deposit. 32
Figure 3.5. Kria Cave, distribution of human remains through the deposit. 33
Figure 3.6. Kria Cave, distribution of molluscan shell through the deposit. 33
Figure 3.7. Kria Cave, distribution of avian eggshell through the deposit. 34
Figure 3.8. Kria Cave, distribution of chert artefacts through the deposit. 34
Figure 3.9. Kria Cave, distribution of Minimum Number of chert Flakes (MNF) through the deposit. 35
Figure 3.10. Kria Cave, distribution of bone artefacts through the deposit. 36
Figure 3.11. The four pottery sherds from Kria Cave. 36
Figure 3.12. Kria Cave, distribution of ochre through the deposit. 37
Figure 3.13. Kria Cave, degree of root damage on unburnt bone through the deposit. 38
Figure 3.14. Kria Cave, abundance of tooth marks on unburnt bone through the deposit. 38
Figure 3.15. Kria Cave, degree of corrosion of unburnt bone through the deposit. 39
Figure 3.16. Kria Cave, proportions of burning categories of animal bone through the deposit. 40
Figure 3.17. Kria Cave, density of bone through the deposit. 41
Figure 3.18. Kria Cave, proportions of unheated vs. heated chert through the deposit. 42
Figure 3.19. Kria Cave, fragmentation of chert through the deposit. 44
Figure 3.20. Kria Cave, degree of weathering of unheated chert through the deposit. 45
Figure 3.21. Kria Cave, density of chert through the deposit. 46
Figure 3.22. Kria Cave, correlation between squares of distributions of animal bone and chert through 49
the deposit.
Figure 3.23. Kria Cave, schematic image of the stratigraphy, with position of radiocarbon dates. 50
Figure 3.24. Kria Cave, sedimentation rate as determined by age-depth relation. 51
Figure 4.1. The karst hill containing Toé Cave; view from Lake Ayamaru. 55
 ix

Figure 4.2. Toé Cave. Left: the entrance where the excavation took place. Right: the corridor leading 56
into the cave.
Figure 4.3. Plan of Toé Cave with location of the excavated squares. 57
Figure 4.4. Schematic image of the latex peel from Square 1N1E in Toé Cave. 58
Figure 4.5. Toé Cave, distribution of animal bone through the deposit. 74
Figure 4.6. Toé Cave, distribution of human remains through the deposit. 75
Figure 4.7. Toé Cave, distribution of molluscan shell through the deposit. 76
Figure 4.8. Toé Cave, distribution of avian eggshell through the deposit. 77
Figure 4.9. Toé Cave. Left: Celtis sp. seed. Right: seed of family Musaceae (banana). 59
Figure 4.10. Toé Cave, distribution of chert artefacts through the deposit. 78
Figure 4.11. Toé Cave, distribution of Minimum Number of chert Flakes through the deposit. 79
Figure 4.12. The three pottery sherds from Toé Cave. 61
Figure 4.13. Toé Cave, distribution of ochre through the deposit. 80
Figure 4.14. Toé Cave, red ochre fragment (with close-up) showing signs of use. 61
Figure 4.15. Toé Cave, degree of root damage on unburnt bone through the deposit. 81
Figure 4.16. Toé Cave, abundance of tooth marks on unburnt bone through the deposit. 82
Figure 4.17. Toé Cave, degree of corrosion of unburnt bone through the deposit. 83
Figure 4.18. Toé Cave, proportions of burning categories of animal bone through the deposit. 84
Figure 4.19. Toé Cave, density of bone through the deposit. 85
Figure 4.20. Toé Cave, proportions of unheated vs. heated chert through the deposit. 86
Figure 4.21a. Toé Cave, fragmentation of chert through the deposit, based on weight/total number of 87
fragments.
Figure 4.21b. Toé Cave, fragmentation of chert through the deposit, based on total number of fragments/ 88
Minimum Number of Flakes.
Figure 4.22. Toé Cave, degree of weathering of unheated chert through the deposit. 89
Figure 4.23. Toé Cave, density of chert through the deposit. 90
Figure 4.24. Toé Cave, correlation between squares of distributions of animal bone through the 68
deposit.
Figure 4.25. Toé Cave, schematic image of the stratigraphy, with position of radiocarbon dates. 70
Figure 5.1. Working-edge removal flake. 93
Figure 5.2. Chert artefact with air pockets or ‘vugs’. 98
Figure 5.3. Block-core from Toé Cave, struck from multiple directions. 99
Figure 5.4. Large primary flake of the kind used as a core within the Toé Cave assemblage. 100
Figure 5.5. Reduction sequence of chert retouched flakes as found in both Toé and Kria Caves. 102
Figure 5.6. Hammerstone with bruised surface from use. 104
Figure 5.7. Toé Cave, relation between width and length of chert retouched flakes for the Holocene 108
and Late Pleistocene samples.
Figure 5.8. Toé Cave, relation between thickness and width of chert retouched flakes for the 108
Holocene and Late Pleistocene samples.
Figure 5.9. Toé Cave, relation between thickness and width of cortex-bearing and cortex-free 108
Holocene chert retouched flakes.
Figure 5.10. Usewear on a straight and low-angled edge. 107
Figure 5.11. Various examples of chert working-edge removal flakes with a typical ‘notch’ on the 110
dorsal side of the flake.
Figure 5.12. Kria Cave, relation between length and width of chert retouched flakes. 118
x

Figure 5.13. Kria Cave, relation between thickness and width of chert retouched flakes. 118
Figure 5.14. Comparison of the Holocene samples of chert retouched flakes from Toé and Kria Caves: 119
relation between thickness and width.
Figure 6.1. Descriptive terminology and measurements of bone artefacts from Kria and Toé Caves. 128
Figure 6.2. Bone artefacts from Kria Cave modified by cutting, shaving and grinding. 129
Figure 6.3. Bone artefact from Kria Cave showing high polish at the tip. 130
Figure 6.4. Types of damage found at the tip of bone artefacts. 132
Figure 6.5. Some examples of the cortical bipointed artefacts from Kria Cave. 137
Figure 6.6. Kria Cave, asymmetry in complete cortical bipoints. 139
Figure 6.7. Kria Cave, relation between total length and point length of complete cortical bipoints. 139
Figure 6.8. Kria Cave, comparison of thickness and width of complete and broken cortical bipoints. 140
Figure 6.9. Kria Cave, proportion lost of broken cortical bipoints. 141
Figure 6.10. Kria Cave, comparison of thickness and width of point-bearing cortical artefacts. 146
Figure 6.11. Some examples of the ‘unfinished’ artefacts from Kria Cave. 147
Figure 6.12. Some examples of the shaft unipoints from Kria Cave. 148
Figure 6.13. Kria Cave, relation between thickness and width of shaft unipoints. 150
Figure 6.14. Kria Cave, comparison of thickness and width of the major shaft artefact categories. 151
Figure 6.15. Kria Cave, distribution of all shaft unipoints and point-bearing fragments by length. 152
Figure 6.16. Kria Cave, distribution of all shaft midsections by length. 153
Figure 6.17. Utilised wallaby incisors from Kria Cave. 155
Figure 7.1. Kria Cave, proportional representation of aquatic molluscs, based on weight. 176
Figure 7.2. Toé Cave, proportional representation of aquatic molluscs, based on weight. 178
Figure 7.3. Kria Cave, proportional representation of vertebrate taxa per unit, based on weight (top) 182
and on NISP (bottom).
Figure 7.4a. Toé Cave, proportional representation of vertebrate taxa, based on weight. 187
Figure 7.4b. Toé Cave, proportional representation of vertebrate taxa, based on NISP. 189
Figure 7.5. Proportional representation of the major vertebrate groups in both caves through time. 194
Figure 7.6. Kria Cave, proportional representation of various vertebrate groups for each of the 198
stratigraphic units, as calculated from NISP values and bone weights.
Figure 7.7. Toé Cave, proportional representation of various vertebrate groups for each of the 199
stratigraphical ‘time blocks’, as calculated from NISP values and bone weights.
Figure 8.1. Correlation between body weight and skeletal weight for a number of Australian 217
macropodids.
Figure 8.2. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Correlation between values for MNI based on body parts 217
and MNI based on bone weight.
Figure 8.3. Dorcopsis muelleri upper and lower cheekteeth with tooth measurements. 223
Figure 8.4. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Histograms of mandibular depths measured at two 227
different locations on the mandible; and histograms of posterior width and crown length
of the two most sexually dimorphic molars.
Figure 8.5. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Bivariate plot of posterior width and crown length in each 228
of the most sexually dimorphic lower molars.
Figure 8.6. Eruption stages, applicable to both upper and lower molars. 230
Figure 8.7. Macropodid skull, palatal view, showing the molar progression reference line to 232
determine the Upper Molar Progression Index (UMI).
 xi

Figure 8.8. Relationship between upper molar eruption and upper molar progression stages in each of 233
the three modern reference series.
Figure 8.9. Measurement of the Lower Molar Progression Index (LMI). 234
Figure 8.10. Left upper and lower molar wear stages in Macropus rufus, Macropus agilis and Setonix 236
brachyurus.
Figure 8.11a. Correlation between molar wear and molar progression in Macropus rufus. 266
Figure 8.11b. Correlation between molar wear and molar progression in Macropus agilis. 267
Figure 8.11c. Correlation between molar wear and molar progression in Setonix brachyurus. 268
Figure 8.12. Life stages of various Australian kangaroos as proportions of their life span (top) and as 240
proportions of their age at sexual maturity (bottom).
Figure 8.13. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Upper and lower molar eruption. 243
Figure 8.14. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Correlation between lower molar eruption and lower 244
molar progression (LMI-2).
Figure 8.15a. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Upper molar progression and lower molar progression 245
LMI-2.
Figure 8.15b. Toé Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Lower molar progression (LMI-2). 246
Figure 8.16. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Correlation between lower molar progression and lower 247
molar wear.
Figure 8.17. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Lower molar wear in Unit II. 269
Figure 8.17. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Lower molar wear in Unit III. 266
Figure 8.17. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Lower molar wear in Unit IV. 266
Figure 8.17. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Lower molar wear in Unit V. 266
Figure 8.17. Toé Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Lower molar wear, Holocene sample. 266
Figure 8.18. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Correlation between lower molar progression and lower 250
molar crown height.
Figure 8.19. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Lower molar crown height in Unit II. 266
Figure 8.19. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Lower molar crown height in Unit III. 266
Figure 8.19. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Lower molar crown height in Unit IV. 266
Figure 8.19. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Lower molar crown height in Unit V. 266
Figure 8.20. Relationship between sustainable yield and population density relative to the carrying 252
capacity of a given environment.
Figure 8.21. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Proportional representation of body parts in each unit. 258
Figure 9.1. Kria Cave, occurrence of various vertebrate taxa through the deposit. X—lowland 280
species, or species with wide range habitat: ▲—strictly montane species.
Figure 9.2. Kria Cave, proportional distribution (by NISP) of vertebrate groups by habitat through the 283
deposit.
Figure 9.3. Toé Cave, occurrence of various vertebrate taxa through the deposit. X—lowland species, 286
or species with wide range habitat: ▲—strictly montane species.
Figure 9.4. Toé Cave, proportional distribution (by NISP) of vertebrate groups by habitat through the 289
deposit.
Figure 9.5. Location of the Ayamaru Plateau in relation to areas above 1000 m elevation. 292

Appendix 1

Figure 1. Toé Cave plus Comparative Mandibular Specimens in the Bulbeck 11-trait List. 354
xii

Figure 2. Seriated Average-Linkage Dendrogram of Square Roots of Penrose Shape Distances based 354
on four Mandibular Measurements.

Appendix 2

Figure 1. Cross-section of sample Kria 1125 showing subepidermal layers and mesocarp. 358
Figure 2. Cross-section of sample Kria 1125 shows the oval cells forming the mesocarp. 359
Figure 3. Endocarp, consisting of a carpel elliptical in shape and around 2.5 mm in width. 360
Figure 4. Close-up of sample Kria 1125 showing scale-like cell arrangement on the carpel. 360

Appendix 3

Figure 1. Zaglossus bruijnii. From Flannery (1995:66). 363

Figure 2. Dendrolagus inustus. From Flannery (1995:133). 364
Figure 3. Dorcopsis hageni. From Flannery (1995:144). 365
Figure 4. Spilocuscus maculatus. From Flannery (1995:181). 366
Figure 5. Spilocuscus maculatus. From Flannery (1995:183). 367
Figure 6. Phalanger intercastellanus. From Flannery (1995:169). 368
Figure 7. Dactylopsila trivirgata. From Flannery (1995:202). 369
Figure 8. Dobsonia magna. From Flannery (1995:351). 370
 List of Tables

Table 3.1. Kria Cave, weathering stages of heated and unheated chert. 43
Table 3.2. Radiocarbon dates from the excavation in Kria Cave. 52
Table 3.3. Kria Cave, interpolated radiocarbon (uncalibrated) age ranges for the identified units. 53
Table 4.1. Weathering stages of heated and unheated chert in Toé Cave. 64
Table 4.2. Radiocarbon dates from Toé Cave. 69
Table 5.1. Toé Cave, proportional representation of different raw materials of stone artefacts in the 97
Holocene and Late Pleistocene units, calculated by number and by weight.
Table 5.2a. Toé Cave, distribution of various artefact categories by raw material, presented by coun t 123
and by weight for the Holocene units.
Table 5.2b. Toé Cave, distribution of various artefact categories by raw material, presented by coun t 124
and by weight for the Late Pleistocene units.
Table 5.3. Dimensions of the nine chert ‘flake-cores’ and similar-sized ‘retouched flakes’ from the 99
Holocene levels of Toé Cave.
Table 5.4. Toé Cave, measurements and basic morphological characteristics of the Holocene and 101
Late Pleistocene samples of retouched and unretouched chert flakes and flake fragments .
Table 5.5. Comparison of shape of unretouched chert flakes and flake fragments, with and without 101
cortex, between the Holocene and Late Pleistocene units of Toé Cave, as expressed by the
ratio of length/width.
Table 5.6. Toé Cave, pattern of breakage of chert flakes in each of the Holocene and Late 104
Pleistocene samples, shown separately for cortex-bearing and cortex-free flakes.
Table 5.7. Comparison of chert retouched flake dimensions between the Holocene and Late 106
Pleistocene levels from Toé Cave.
Table 5.8. Comparison of shape between the Holocene and Late Pleistocene chert retouched flakes 106
from Toé Cave, as expressed by the ratio length/width.
Table 5.9. Toé Cave, distribution of retouch and usewear within the Holocene chert assemblage. 107
Table 5.10. Toé Cave, dimensions of working-edge removal flakes from the Holocene chert 109
assemblage.
Table 5.11. Toé Cave, distribution of retouch and usewear within the Late Pleistocene chert 107
assemblage.
Table 5.12. Kria Cave, proportional representation of different raw materials in the five units, 111
calculated by number and by weight.
Table 5.13a. Kria Cave, counts and weights (g) of the various artefact categories by raw material. Unit 124
I.
Table 5.13b. Kria Cave, counts and weights (g) of the various artefact categories by raw material. Unit 124
II.
Table 5.13c. Kria Cave, counts and weights (g) of the various artefact categories by raw material. Unit 125
III.
xiv

Table 5.13d. Kria Cave, counts and weights (g) of the various artefact categories by raw material. Unit 125
IV.
Table 5.13e. Kria Cave, counts and weights (g) of the various artefact categories by raw material. Unit 126
V.
Table 5.14. Dimensions of the three flake-cores and similar-sized retouched flakes (potential flake 112
cores) from the deposit in Kria Cave.
Table 5.15. Ratios of Minimum Number of chert Flakes to cores and potential cores for each unit in Kria 112
Cave, compared with equivalent values for Toé Cave.
Table 5.16. Kria Cave, measurements and basic morphological characteristics of the samples of 113
retouched and unretouched chert flakes and flake fragments, presented by unit.
Table 5.17. Comparison of shape of unretouched flakes and flake fragments, with and without cortex, 115
between the units from Kria Cave, as expressed by the ratio length/width.
Table 5.18. Kria Cave, pattern of breakage of chert flakes in each of the units, shown separately for 116
cortex-bearing and cortex-free flakes.
Table 5.19. Kria Cave, comparison of chert retouched flake dimensions between the units. 117
Table 5.20. Comparison of chert retouched flakes between the units in Kria Cave and the Holocene 117
sample of Toé Cave, as expressed by the ratio length/width.
Table 5.21. Kria Cave, number of chert artefacts with retouch and usewear within the units. 119
Table 5.22. Kria Cave, dimensions of chert working-edge removal flakes from all units. 120
Table 6.1. Kria Cave, distribution of bone artefacts and utilised incisors through the deposit. 134
Table 6.2. Kria Cave, raw material used for the various bone artefact categories. 135
Table 6.3. Kria Cave, number of artefacts manufactured from unburnt and burnt bone. 135
Table 6.4. Kria Cave, number of artefacts with evidence of particular manufacturing techni ques. 136
Table 6.5. Kria Cave, group statistics for each artefact category in each unit. 138
Table 6.6. Kria Cave, number of artefacts showing varying degrees of polish. 142
Table 6.7. Kria Cave, number of artefacts showing varying types of tip damage. 143
Table 6.8. Kria Cave, association of polish and tip damage in cortical bone artefacts. 144
Table 7.1. Weights and proportional composition of the organic remains from bothsites. 173
Table 7.2. Molluscan taxa recorded from each of Kria and Toé Caves. 174
Table 7.3. List of vertebrates recorded from the combined Kria and Toé faunal assemblages. 205
Table 7.4a. Composition of the Kria Cave vertebrate assemblage, divided into stratigraphic units, 180
summarised by proportional bone weight per taxonomic class
Table 7.4b. Taxonomic composition of the Kria Cave identified vertebrate assemblage, divided into 181
stratigraphic units, summarised by proportional bone weight and by proportional Number
of Identified Specimens (NISP).
Table 7.5. Fishes presently found in the Ayamaru Lakes. 183
Table 7.6. Taxonomic composition of the Toé Cave identified vertebrate assemblage, divided into 192
‘time blocks’
Table 7.7. Kria Cave, relative proportions of burning classes for bone of each maj or group of 195
vertebrates.
Table 7.8. Kria Cave, proportional representation of each taxon in the assemblage based on total bone 196
weight, with and without corrections for differences in skeletal weight relative to body
weight.
Table 8.1. Kria Cave, counts of identified body parts for Dorcopsis muelleri and estimates of 214
Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI).
 xv

Table 8.2. Kria Cave, distribution of Dorcopsis and possible Dorcopsis bone in total weight (g), 216
summarised by unit and for the entire assemblage.
Table 8.3. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Minimum Number of Individuals required to account for 218
the various classes of identified bone shown in Table 8.2.
Table 8.4. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Estimated Minimum Number of Individuals for the entire 219
deposit, based on the weight of the various classes of identified bone.
Table 8.5. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Summary of Minimum Number of Individuals estimates 220
for the excavated squares and extrapolated for the whole site, based on the two methods
using body parts and teeth, and bone weight.
Table 8.6. Statistical comparison of lower Dorcopsis tooth measurements from Kria Cave and Toé 224
Cave.
Table 8.7. Summary of lower tooth measurements of Dorcopsis from three stratigraphic time 225
periods.
Table 8.8. Relationship between upper molar progression and lower molar progression (measured at 233
location LMI-1 and LMI-2) for each of the three reference species.
Table 8.9. Comparison between tooth wear (wear stage and crown height) and age (Lower Molar 237
Progression Index LMI-2) of the three reference species.
Table 8.10. Life history parameters of the four macropodid species studied, with the equivalent molar 238
eruption and progression (LMI-2) stages.
Table 8.11. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Number of lower tooth elements in the sample. 242
Table 8.12. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Statistical comparison of lower molar wear between 246
various time periods.
Table 8.13. Kria Cave, Dorcopsis muelleri. Statistical comparison of lower molar crown height 248
between various time periods.
Table 8.14. Statistical comparison of Dorcopsis lower molar progression (LMI-2) between various 249
stratigraphical time periods in Kria and Toé Caves.
Table 8.15. Kria Cave, counts of various skeletal fragments for the combined categories Dorcopsis 256
and ‘macropodid’, by major stratigraphic unit.
Table 8.16. Kria Cave, counts of a representative subset of skeletal elements. 257
Table 8.17. Kria Cave, proportion of Dorcopsis + macropodid remains in each of three burning 259
classes, based on number of specimens.
Table 8.18. Kria Cave, distribution of burning by skeletal element and bone portion for Dorcopsis 260
+macropodid remains.
Table 8.19. Kria Cave, fragmentation of the combined macropodid remains compared with other 262
identified mammals and snakes.
Table 8.20. Kria Cave, fragmentation (NISP/MNI) of Dorcopsis bone by body part. 262
Table 9.1. List of vertebrate species and families from Kria and Toé Caves. Numbers corresponding 280
to those given in Figures 9.1 and 9.3.

Appendix 1

Table 1. Kria Cave, diameters of the teeth (mm). 339

Table 2. Kria Cave, left adult tibia measurements compared with male Australian means. 340
Table 3. Kria Cave, probable/definite juvenile identifications. 341
Table 4. Kria Cave, dental morphological observations on the adolescent teeth. 345
xvi

Table 5. Toé Cave, attempted assignment of the in situ human remains to individuals. 345
Table 6. Toé Cave, diameters of the teeth (mm). 347
Table 7. Toé Cave, measurements (in mm) and main anatomical observations on the mandible. 347
Table 8. Toé Cave, dental morphological observations on the teeth (ASU system). 350
Table 9. Dental morphology assessed in terms of Scott & Turner’s (1997) break points. 352
Table 10. Seriated square roots of Penrose shape distances based on bigonial width, chin height, and 354
height and thickness at the mental foramen.
 Preface

The present volume of Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia contains the results of
archaeological research by Pasveer on the Bird’s Head Peninsula of the island of New Guinea. The research
was submitted for a PhD dissertation at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and funded within the
Dutch-Indonesian ‘ISIR’ project. Many outcomes of the ISIR project, including some preliminary results
from the archaeological research, were reported in volume 15 of this series (Bird’s Head Approaches, edited
by G.-J.Bartstra).
Technically, the study area falls outside of the geographic region of Southeast Asia and within Oceania.
However, for two reasons, we consider the subject matter appropriate for publication in this series. Firstly,
the Bird’s Head is politically part of the Indonesian province of Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) and thus is
likely to attract increasing attention from Indonesian archaeologists. And secondly, the Bird’s Head
represents a region of biological and cultural interaction between the two great geographic regions and thus
warrants the attention of all regional scholars.
The Djief Hunters contains a detailed account of cultural and biological remains excavated from two
prehistoric sites in the central Bird’s Head, with a combined archaeological record spanning c. 26,000
radiocarbon years. The work is pioneering in the sense that the sites are the first to be systematically
excavated and analysed in the entire western half of New Guinea. However, it is also pioneering in the
sense that it contains new methods of analysis and interpretation of the abundant faunal remains from the two
sites, and some new observations on the nature and extent of environmental change and human adaptations
in a tropical lowland environment. We hope that the range of material included in the volume will make it a
valuable reference for Quaternary researchers all of persuasions.
A few ‘domestic’ issues concerning Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia need to be
mentioned. First of all, the circumstances of publication changed upon the retirement in 2000 of Mr
A.T.Balkema. Although A.A.Balkema Publishers continued to exist (and still does today), it was now
managed within the broader umbrella of another Netherlands-based publisher, Swets & Zeitlinger
Publishers. Subsequently, Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers was sold in November 2003 to Taylor & Francis, a
UK-based scientific publisher. The production of new ‘MQR’ volumes was somewhat delayed due to these
events and also by the relocation of the series editors from the western side of Australia to the eastern side.
However, the delay also gave time for reflection, one consequence of which is the changed size and
‘modernised’ cover of this and all future volumes in the series.
The production of The Djief Hunters was made possible through financial support kindly provided by the
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). We would like to thank Janjaap Blom of A.A.
xviii

Balkema Publishers for his patience and support during the production of this initial volume of the ‘new
look’ Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia.
Juliette Pasveer Ken Aplin
Department of Archaeology and Natural History Community Ecology Group
The Australian National University CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Canberra Canberra
Australia Australia
 Acknowledgements

There are numerous people who have had part in this project, all of whom provided an invaluable
contribution and to whom I would like to express my gratitude. First of all, the fieldwork in Ayamaru would
not have been such a great success without the inexhaustible help and energy from our Indonesian fieldwork
team: Sapri Hadiwisastra and Yono Silalahi (Indonesian Institute of Sciences, R&D Center for
Geotechnology, Bandung), Elimas Kambuaya (Sekolah Menengah Pertama, Ayamaru) and Johnny Naa
(Kartapura). Mr Kambuaya has been an invaluable source of information both before and after the
fieldwork. In recognition of his efforts, a newly discovered Striped Possum (Dactylopsila kambuayai) found
amongst the excavated fauna remains has been named after him. I would also like to thank the Kepala
Desas and the people of Ayamaru (Mefkajim), Men/Semoe/Kartapura and Suwiam/Mapura for their
hospitality and help during our stay and during the fieldwork, and for their permission to access their sites.
D.D.Bintarti (National Research Centre of Archaeology, Jakarta) assisted and accompanied us during the
reconnaissance trip to the Bird’s Head in 1994.
Much of my inspiration for this work came from my extensive discussions with Ken Aplin
(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra), who has given me invaluable
insights in the field of archaeozoology and Australasian-Pacific archaeology, and who helped with faunal
identifications. Reinder Reinders, Wietske Prummel, Gert-Jan Bartstra, Marcel Niekus [all associated (or
used to be) with the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA), University of Groningen], and Matthew
Spriggs [School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University (ANU)] gave valuable
comments on the draft of this thesis.
My collaboration with Gifford Miller (Center for Geochronological Research/Dept. of Geological
Sciences, University of Colorado) and Simon Clarke (School of Geosciences, University of Wollongong)
has been particularly fruitful. As part of their programme involving amino acid racemisation of ratite
eggshell from the Australian-Pacific region, they used the eggshell material from both Bird’s Head sites and
provided me with a large proportion of the radiocarbon dates from the caves.
Rien Dam (CICAT, Delft University of Technology) and Sander van der Kaars (School of Geography &
Environmental Science, Monash University) allowed me to use their unpublished data obtained from the
pollen cores taken from the Ayamaru Lakes. Geoff Hope (Dept. of Archaeology and Natural History, ANU)
helped me to interpret these data. I am grateful for their help and collaboration.
Many people helped with specific problems or particular materials; of these I would like to specifically
mention (in no particular order): Tim Flannery and John Scanlon (South Australian Museum, Adelaide);
Walter Boles (Australian Museum, Sydney); Peter Hiscock (School of Archaeology and Anthropology,
ANU); Marcel Niekus (GIA, University of Groningen); Rob Moolenbeek (Zoological Museum
Amsterdam), Katherine Szabó, Glenn Summerhayes and Wallace Ambrose (Dept. of Archaeology and
Natural History, ANU); Rainer Grün (Environmental Geochemistry and Geochronology, ANU); Lyn
Other documents randomly have
different content
Fig. 10.—The Common Ship's Barnacle, Lepas anatifera, natural size. The
name "Anatifera," the "goose-bearer," was given to this species by Linnæus
in reference to the legend of its giving birth to young geese.
st., stalk.
cir., cirri, or double hairy legs.
pe., opening of the seminal duct.
 sc., scutum; t, tergum, the two plates or shells of the left side; c, the middle
piece or shell called the "carina."
It is not every one who has the chance of seeing living ship's
barnacles (Lepas), but anyone can pick up a stone or bit of rock on
the seashore with live sea-acorns or acorn-barnacles (Balanus)
adherent to it. Each is like a little truncated volcano (Fig. 11), the
sides of which correspond to the pair of larger shells of the ship's
barnacle, fused together and grown into a cone-like wall. The acorn-
barnacle has no stalk, but adheres by its broad base to the stone.
Just within the shelly crater are four small hinged plates or valves in
pairs, identical with the smaller shelly bits of the ship's barnacle.
When you first see your specimen, the valves are tightly closed.
After a few minutes in a glass of sea-water they open right and left,
and up jumps—jack-in-the-box-wise—a tuft of bowing and scraping
feelers or tentacles, like those of the ship's barnacle. If disturbed,
they shoot inwards, and the valves close on them like a spring
trapdoor.
Now, these clawing, feathery little plumes are
found, when we examine them with a hand-
glass, to be six pairs in number, and each of
them is Y-shaped, like the swimmerets of a
lobster. The arms of the Y are built up of many
Fig. 11.—A large little joints and covered with coarse hairs. As a
British Sea-acorn, result of the study of the young condition of the
Balanus porcatus, ship's barnacle and the sea-acorn, we find that
allied to the Ship's these six pairs of Y-shaped plumes are six pairs
Barnacle. l, the of legs corresponding to those of the mid-body
feather-like legs
issuing from the (some of the walking legs and some of the foot-
shell. Drawn of jaws) of the lobster, and that the shelly hinged
the natural size. plates of the barnacles correspond to the
overhanging sides of the "head" of the lobster
and prawn, which one can imagine to be hinged
along a line running down the back so as to open like the covers of a
book. There are very common little, free-swimming "water-fleas"
(minute crustaceans) of many hundreds of kinds which have hinged
shells of this description when in the full-grown condition, and it is
found that the young barnacles and sea-acorns pass through a free-
swimming phase of growth (the Cyprid stage), in which they greatly
resemble these "water-fleas."
In fact, it is quite easy to hatch the young from the eggs of either
ship's barnacles or acorn-barnacles at the right season of the year.
They commence life as do so many Crustacea—in the "nauplius
state," with three pairs of jerking limbs (Fig. 9). As they grow the
overhanging pair of shells, delicate and transparent, appear; the
three pairs of nauplius legs lose their swimming power; the most
anterior (always called antennules in all crustaceans) become
elongated and provided each with an adhesive sucker, on the face of
which a large cement gland opens, secreting abundant adhesive
cement; the second pair (antennæ) shrivel and disappear
altogether; the third pair lose their long blades for striking the water
and remain as simple, but strong, stumps—the mandibles! Two new
pairs of little jaw-feet appear behind these, and farther back on the
now enlarged body (the whole creature is not bigger than a small
canary seed!) six pairs of Y-shaped legs appear and strike the water
rhythmically, so that the little creature swims with some sobriety.
The region to which these legs are attached is marked with rings or
segments, and behind it follows a small, limbless, hind body of four
segments, or joints, ending with two little hairy prongs like a
pitchfork. The right and left movable, shell-like fold, or downgrowth,
of the sides of the body encloses the whole creature except the
protruding antennules with their suckers.
 Fig. 12.—Two stages in the growth of the Common Barnacle from the
Nauplius stage. Diagrammatic.
cir., the double legs or cirri; m, mouth; o, the single eye; d, the digestive
canal.
a′, one of the antennules or "feelers" (that of the right side of the head)
provided with a sucking disk by means of which the young animal becomes
fixed.

In this condition it swims about for a time, and then, once for all,
fixes itself by means of the suckers and their abundant cement, on
to rock, stone, or floating wood—and there remains for the rest of
its life (Fig. 12). It increases enormously in size, the delicate
transparent shell develops into hard calcareous plates, opening and
shutting on the hinge-line of the back. In the stalked kinds a peculiar
elongated growth of an inch or several inches in length takes place
between the mouth and the fixed suckers of the antennules (Figs. 10
and 12); in the short, so-called, "acorn" kinds, this stalk does not
form, but a separate part of the shell grows into a ring-like
protective wall or cone. The creature is thus actually fastened by its
head—"upside down, with its legs sticking up" not in the air, but in
the water. Those six pairs of Y-shaped legs, though no longer
enabling the barnacle to swim, increase in relative size, and keep up
their active movements. It is they which emerge like a plume when
the valves of the shell open and carry on the rhythmic bowing and
scraping movement described above.
The barnacles have, in fact, undergone a transformation which may
be compared to that experienced by a man who should begin life as
an active boy running about as others do, but be compelled
suddenly by some strange spell or Arabian djin to become glued by
the top of his head to the pavement, and to spend his time in
kicking his food into his mouth with his legs. Such is the fate of the
barnacles, and it is as strange and exceptional amongst crustaceans
as it would be amongst men. Indeed, to "earn a living" human
acrobats will submit to something very much like it. It is this change
from the life of a free-living shrimp to that of a living lump, adherent
by its head to rocks or floating logs, that Vaughan Thompson in
1830 discovered to be the story of every barnacle, and so showed
that they were really good crustaceans gone wrong, and not
molluscs. It is a curious fact that the young ascidian or sea-squirt
which swims freely and has the shape of a tadpole, also when very
young fixes itself by the top of its head to a rock or piece of
seaweed, and remains immovable for the rest of its life. Though
agreeing in their strange fixation by the head, the barnacle and the
ascidian are very different kinds of animals. (For some account of
the Ascidian the reader may consult the chapter "Tadpoles of the
Sea" in "Science from an Easy Chair," Second Series. Methuen,
1912.)
The name "Cirripedes" is commonly used for the order or group
formed by the barnacles—in allusion to the plume-like appearance of
their "raking" legs. Stalked barnacles often are found in the ocean
attached to floating pumice-stone, and one species has been
discovered attached to the web of the foot of a sea-bird. They, like
many other creatures, benefit by being carried far and wide by
floating objects. Whales have very large and solid acorn-barnacles
peculiar to them, fixed deeply in their skin. Others attach themselves
to marine turtles.
With few exceptions the crustaceans are of separate sexes, male
and female. But in nearly all classes of animals we find some kinds,
even whole orders, in which the ovaries and spermaries are present
in one and the same individual. "Monœcious" or "one-housed"—that
is to say, possessing one house or individual for both ovaries and
spermaries—is the proper word for this condition, but a usual term
for it is "hermaphrodite." "Diœcious" is the term applied to animals
or plants in which there are two kinds of individuals—one to carry
the spermaries, the male, and the other to carry the ovaries, the
female. It is probable that the monœcious condition has preceded
the diœcious in all but unicellular animals. In vertebrate animals as
high as the frogs and the toads we find rudimentary ovaries in the
male, and in individual cases both ovaries and spermaries are well
developed. Such a condition is not rare as an individual abnormality
in fishes. In some common species of sea-perch (Serranus) and
others it is not an exception but the rule.
Many groups of molluscs are monœcious, and it is not in any way
astonishing to find a group of crustaceans which are so. The
Cirripedes or barnacles are an example. It is probable that the
presence of ovaries and spermaries in the same individual—the
monœcious condition—is an advantage to immovable fixed animals.
During the voyage of the "Beagle," and making use on his return of
the collections then obtained, Darwin carried out a very thorough
study of the Cirripedes of all kinds from all parts of the world. He
worked out their anatomy minutely, classified the 300 different kinds
then known, and described many new kinds. The stalked barnacles
often occur in groups, the individuals being of different ages and
sizes, the small young ones sometimes fixing themselves by their
sucker-bearing heads to the stalks of their well-grown relatives. In
all the varied kinds studied by Darwin he found that the full-grown
individuals were monœcious—that is, of combined sex—as was
known to be the case in those studied before his day. But Darwin
made the remarkable discovery that in two kinds of stalked
barnacles (not the common ship's barnacles), comprising several
species, "dwarf males" were present perched upon the edge of the
shell of the large monœcious (bi-sexual) individuals. These dwarf
males were from one-tenth to one-twentieth the length of the large
normal monœcious individuals, but usually possessed the
characteristic details of the shell-valves and other features of the
latter.
This existence of a sort of supernumerary diminutive kind of male as
an accompaniment to a race of normal monœcious individuals was
quite a new thing when Darwin discovered it. That all the males in
some diœcious animals are minute as compared with the females
was known, and has been established in the case of some parasitic
crustaceans, in some of the wheel-animalcules, and in the most
exaggerated degree in the curious worms, Bonellia and Hamingia.
But the existence of "complemental males," as Darwin called them,
existing apparently in order to fertilize the eggs should they escape
fertilization by the ordinary monœcious individuals, was a new thing.
And it was doubted and disputed when Darwin described his
observations fifty-six years ago. They were, in fact, by many
regarded as a distinct species parasitic upon the larger barnacles on
which they were found until Darwin's conclusion as to their nature
was confirmed by the report of Dr. Hoek, on the barnacles brought
home by the "Challenger" expedition.
It is an interesting fact that recent studies have shown that in some
of the barnacles with dwarf males (species of Scalpellum) the large
individuals are no longer monœcious, but have become purely
females, whilst in some other species dwarf males have been
discovered which have rudimentary ovaries. Thus we get gradations
leading from one extreme case to the other. Darwin always felt
confidence in his original observations on this matter, and was
proportionately delighted when, after thirty years, his early work was
proved to be sound. In the Natural History Museum at the Darwin
centenary in 1909, a temporary exhibition of specimens, note-books,
and letters associated with Darwin's work, was brought together. His
original specimens and drawings of Cirripedes and of the wonderful
little "complemental males" of the barnacles were placed on view.
 CHAPTER XIV

THE HISTORY OF THE BARNACLE AND THE

GOOSE

T
HE curious belief, widely spread in former ages—that the
creatures (described in the last chapter) called "barnacles" or
"ship's barnacles"—often found attached in groups to pieces of
floating timber in the sea as well as fixed to the bottoms of wooden
ships—are the young of a particular kind of goose called "the
barnacle goose," which is supposed to hatch out of the white shell of
the long-stalked barnacle, is a very remarkable example of the
persistence of a tradition which is entirely fanciful. It was current in
Western Europe for six or seven centuries, and was discussed,
refuted, and again attested by eminent authorities even as late as
the foundation of the Royal Society—the first president of which, Sir
Robert Moray, read a paper at one of the earliest meetings of the
society in 1661, in which he described the bird-like creature which
he had observed within the shell of the common ship's barnacle, and
favoured the belief that a bird was really in this way produced by a
metamorphosis of the barnacle.
The story was ridiculed and rejected by no less a philosopher than
Roger Bacon in the thirteenth century, and was also discredited by
the learned Aristotelian Albertus Magnus at about the same time. No
trace of it is to be found in Aristotle or Herodotus or any classical
author, nor in the "Physiologus." The legend seems to have
originated in the East, for the earliest written statement which we
have concerning it is by a certain Father Damien, in the eleventh
century, who simply declares: "Birds can be produced by trees, as
happens in the island of Thilon in India." We have also a reference
to the same marvel in an ancient Oriental book (the "Zohar," the
principal book of the Kaballah), as follows: "The Rabbi Abba saw a
tree from the fruits of which birds were hatched." The earliest
written statements of the legend are, it appears, to the effect that
there is a tree which produces fruits from which birds are hatched.
The belief in the story seems to have died out at the end of the
seventeenth century, when the structure of the barnacle lying within
its shell was examined without prejudice, and it was seen to have
only the most remote resemblance to a bird. The plumose legs or
"cirrhi" of the barnacle (Fig. 10) have a superficial resemblance to a
young feather or possibly to the jointed toes of a young bird, and
there the possibilities of comparison end.
The notion that a particular kind of black goose (a "brent"), which
occurs on the marshy coast of Britain in great numbers, is the
goose, the bird, produced by the barnacle was favoured by the fact
that this goose does not breed in Britain, and yet suddenly appears
in large flocks, in districts where barnacles attached to rotting timber
are often drifted on to the shore. It was accordingly assumed by
learned monks—who already knew the traveller's tale, that in distant
lands birds are produced by the transformation of barnacles—that
this goose is the actual bird which is bred from the barnacles, and it
was accordingly called "the barnacle goose." I think that this
identification was due to the exercise of a little authority on the part
of the clergy in both France and Britain, who were thus enabled to
claim the abundant "barnacle goose" as a fish in its nature and
origin rather than a fowl, and so to use it as food on the fast-days of
the Church. Pope Innocent III (to whom the matter was referred)
considered it necessary in 1215 to prohibit the eating of "barnacle
geese" in Lent, since although he admitted that they are not
generated in the ordinary way, he yet maintained (very reasonably)
that they live and feed like ducks, and cannot be regarded as
differing in nature from other birds.
Thus we see that in early and even later days a good deal hung on
the truth of this story of the generation of barnacle geese. The story
was popularly discussed by the devout and by sceptics, and appears
to have been known in France as "l'histoire du canard." At last in the
seventeenth century it was finally discredited, owing to the account
given by some Dutch explorers of the eggs and young of the
barnacle goose—like those of any other goose—and its breeding-
place in the far north on the coast of Greenland. The discredited and
hoary legend now became the type and exemplar of a marvellous
story which is destitute of foundation, and so the term "un canard"
(short for histoire d'un canard), commonly applied in French to such
stories, receives its explanation. Our own term for such stories, in
use as long since as 1640, namely, "a cock-and-bull story," has not
been traced to its historical source.[3]
[3] Probably it means "a silly story told by a cock to a bull!" as
suggested by the French word coq-à-l'âne, which means a story
told or fit to be told by a cock to an ass!

That the story of the goose or duck and the transformed barnacle
was a popular one in Shakespear's time, whether believed or
disbelieved, appears from his reference to barnacles in "The
Tempest." Caliban says to Stephano and Trinculo, when they have all
three been plagued by Prospero's magic, and plunged by Ariel into
"the filthy mantled pool" near at hand, "dancing up to their chins":
"We shall lose our time and all be turned to barnacles, or to apes
with foreheads villainous low." Probably enough, this is an allusion to
the supposed Protean nature of barnacles. They are not alluded to
elsewhere in Shakespear.
One of the most precise accounts of the generation of geese by
barnacles is that of the mediaeval historian Giraldus Cambrensis,
who visited Ireland and wrote an account of what he saw in the time
of Henry II, at the end of the twelfth century. He says: "There are in
this place many birds which are called Bernacæ; Nature produces
them, against Nature, in a most extraordinary way. They are like
marsh-geese, but somewhat smaller. They are produced from fir
timber tossed along the sea, and are at first like gum. Afterwards
they hang down by their beaks as if they were a seaweed attached
to the timber, and are surrounded by shells in order to grow more
freely. Having thus in process of time been clothed with a strong
coat of feathers, they either fall into the water or fly freely away into
the air." "I have frequently seen," he proceeds, "with my own eyes,
more than a thousand of these small bodies of birds, hanging down
on the seashore from a piece of timber, enclosed in their shells and
ready formed. They do not breed and lay eggs like other birds; nor
do they ever hatch any eggs nor build nests anywhere. Hence
bishops and clergymen in some parts of Ireland do not scruple to
dine off these birds at the time of fasting, because they are not flesh
nor born of flesh!"
It is noteworthy that Giraldus does not state—in accordance with the
tradition as reported by earlier writers—that there is a tree the buds
of which become transformed into the geese, but says merely that
the "small bodies of birds," clearly indicating by his description
groups of ship's barnacles, are "produced from fir timber tossed
along the sea." It is also noteworthy that he calls the geese
themselves "Bernacæ," which is the Celtic name for a shell-fish.
Later the belief seems to have reverted to the older tradition, or
probably enough the complete story, including the existence of the
bird-producing tree, existed in its original form in "seats of learning"
in other parts of the British Islands outside Ireland, and also in Paris
and other places in Western Europe. For we find that in 1435 the
learned Sylvius, who afterwards became Pope Pius II, visited King
James of Scotland in order, among other things, to see the
wonderful tree which he had heard of as growing in Scotland from
the fruit of which geese are born. He complains that "miracles will
always flee further and further," for when he had now arrived in
Scotland and asked to see the tree, he was told that it did not grow
there, but farther north, in the Orkneys. And so he did not see the
tree.
In 1597, John Gerard, in the third book of his "Herbal, or History of
Plants," writes as follows: "There are found in the north parts of
Scotland and the Islands adjacent called Orchades, certaine trees
whereon do grow certaine shell-fishes of a white colour tending to
russett, wherein are contained little creatures which shels in time of
maturity doe open and out of them grow those little living things
which, falling into the water, doe become foules whom we call
Barnacles, in the north of England Brent Geese, and in Lancashire
Tree Geese." Gerard is here either adopting or suggesting an
identification of the tradition of the tree which produces birds from
its buds, with the floating timber bearing ship's barnacles, which
were supposed to give birth to the brent geese. He does not say that
he has seen, or knows persons who have seen, the barnacles
attached to the branches of living trees. Nevertheless, he gives a
picture of them so attached (Fig. 13). It has been suggested, in later
times, that such a fixation of barnacles to the branches of living
trees might occur in some of the sea-water lochs of the west of
Scotland,—just as oysters become attached to the mangrove trees in
the West Indies,—and it has further been suggested that willows
might thus droop their branches into the sea-water, and that the
catkins on the willow-shoots might be taken for an early stage of
growth of the barnacles; but I have not come across any record of
such fixation of barnacles on living shrubs or branches of trees, and
I am inclined to think that Gerard's story of what occurs in the
distant Orkneys is merely an attempt to substantiate the bird-
producing tree of the Oriental story, by quietly assuming that the
sea-borne timber covered with barnacles existed somewhere as
living trees and exhibited this same property of budding forth
barnacles which on opening liberated each a minute gosling. Gerard
continues as follows: "But what our eyes have seen and hands have
handled we shall declare." There is, he tells us, a small island in
Lancashire called the Pile of Foulders, and there rotten trees and the
broken timbers of derelict ships are thrown up by the sea. On them
forms "a certain spume or froth which in time breeds into certaine
shells." He then gives a description of these shells and the fish
contained therein, which is a correct enough account of the common
ship's barnacle. He proceeds, however, to an assertion which is not
of something which he saw or handled, namely, that the animal
within the shell, though like the fish of an oyster, gradually grows to
a bird and comes forth hanging to the shell by its bill. Finally, he
says, it escapes to maturity. At the end of his chapter on this
subject, Gerard says: "I dare not absolutely avouch every
circumstance of the first part of this history concerning the tree
which beareth those buds aforesaide, but will leave it to a further
consideration."

Fig. 13.—The picture of the "Goose Tree," copied from the first edition of
Gerard's "Herbal."
The fruit-like oval bodies are "barnacles" (Lepas) fancifully represented as
growing like buds or fruit on a little tree. Some of the young geese are drawn
as in the act of escaping from the barnacle-shells, and others are
represented swimming in the water.
Gerard's "Herbal" was reprinted forty years later (in 1636) and
edited by Johnson, a member of the Society of Apothecaries. He
writes with contempt of Gerard's credulity as to the story of the
barnacle and the goose, and states that certain "Hollanders" in
seeking a north-east passage to China had recently come across
some islands in the Arctic Sea which were the breeding-place of the
so-called barnacle goose, and had taken and eaten sixty of their
eggs, besides young and old birds.
Probably there were always lovers of the marvellous and the occult
who favoured and would favour to-day the tradition of the
conversion of one animal into another and such wonders; and there
were also both in the days of ancient Greece and Rome, and even in
the darkest of the Middle Ages, men with a sceptical and inquiring
spirit, who accepted no traditional testimony, but demanded, as the
basis of their admitting something unlikely as nevertheless true, the
trial of experiment and the examination of specimens. What has
happened since Gerard's time and the incorporation of the Royal
Society in 1662, is that the sceptical men have got the upper hand,
though not without much opposition. In this country, owing to the
defective education administered in our public schools and older
universities, there is still quite a large number of well-to-do people
ready to believe in any "occult" imposture or fantasy that may be
skilfully brought to their notice.
On the other hand, we must bear in mind when we consider these
strange beliefs held by really learned and intelligent men in the past,
that the investigation of nature had not advanced very far in their
time. It was not held, as it is to-day, as an established fact that living
things are generated only by slips or cuttings of a parent or from
eggs or germs which are special detached particles of the parent. It
was held to be a matter of common observation and certainty that
all sorts of living things are "spontaneously generated" by slime, by
sea foam, by mud, and by decomposing dead bodies of animals and
trees. It was also held, in consequence of a blind belief in, and often
a complete misunderstanding of, the legends and fairy tales of the
ancients and of the preposterous "Bestiaries" and books on magic
which were the fashion in mediaeval times, that it is quite a usual
and natural thing for one animal or plant to change into another.
Hence there was nothing very surprising (though worthy of record)
in a barnacle changing into a young goose, or in the buds of a tree
becoming in some conditions changed into barnacles!
So, too, the notion that rotting timber can "generate" barnacles was
not, to our forefathers, at all out of the way or preposterous. Sir
Thomas Browne in 1646 was unable to make up his mind on this
matter, and believed in the spontaneous generation of mice by
wheat, to which he briefly alludes in his curious book called
"Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or an Enquiry into Vulgar and Common
Errors." The account of the creation given by the poet Milton was
based upon the belief in the daily occurrence of such spontaneous
generation of living things of high complexity of structure and large
size, from slime and mud. The process of creation of living things
conceived by him was but a general and initial exhibition of an
activity of earth and sea which in his belief was still in daily
operation in remote and undisturbed localities.
In 1668 the Italian naturalist, Redi, demonstrated that putrefying
flesh does not "spontaneously breed" maggots. He showed that if a
piece of flesh is protected by a wire network cover from the access
of flies, no maggots appear in it, and that the flies attracted by the
smell of the meat lay their eggs on the wire network, unable to
reach the meat, whilst if the wire cover is removed they lay their
eggs on the meat, and from them the maggots are hatched. It took
a long time for this demonstration by Redi to affect popular belief,
and there are still country folk who believe in the spontaneous
generation of maggots.[4]
[4] See the chapter, "Primitive Beliefs about Fatherless Progeny,"
in "Science from an Easy Chair," Second Series.
But few, if any, persons of ordinary intelligence or education now
believe that these sudden productions of living things, without
regular and known parentage, take place. The spontaneous
generation of large, tangible creatures having ceased to be an article
of general belief, the conviction nevertheless persisted for some time
that at any rate minute microscopic living things were generated
without parentage. This theory was more difficult to test on account
of the need for employing the microscope in the inquiry, which was
not brought to a high state of efficiency until the last century. By
experiments similar to those of Redi, it was shown in the first half of
last century by Theodor Schwann that even the minute bacteria do
not appear in putrescible material when those already in it are killed
by boiling that material, and when the subsequent access to it of
other bacteria is prevented by closing all possible entrance of air-
borne particles, or insect carriers of germs. It took another fifty
years to thoroughly establish by observation and experiment the
truth of Schwann's refutation of the supposed "spontaneous
generation" of the minutest forms of life.
As an example of the strange incapacity for making correct
observation and the failure to record correctly things observed which
are frequently exhibited by the most highly placed "men of
education," as well as by uneducated peasants and fisher folk, we
have the short paper entitled, "A Relation concerning Barnacles," by
Sir Robert Moray—the first president of the Royal Society of London
(from 1661 until its incorporation in 1662)—a very distinguished
man, and an intimate friend of King Charles II. This paper was read
to the society in 1661 and published in 1677 in vol. xii. of the
"Philosophical Transactions." Sir Robert relates how he found on the
coast a quantity of dead barnacles attached to a piece of timber, and
that in each barnacle's shell was a bird. He writes: "This bird in
every shell that I opened, as well the least as the biggest, I found so
curiously and completely formed that there appeared nothing
wanting, as to the external parts, for making up a perfect sea-fowl;
every little part appearing so distinctly that the whole looked like a
large bird seen through a concave or diminishing glass, colour and
feature being everywhere so clear and near. The little bill like that of
a goose, the eyes marked, the head, neck, breast, wings, tail and
feet formed, the feathers everywhere perfectly shaped and blackish
coloured, and the feet like those of other waterfowl—to my best
remembrance. All being dead and dry, I did not look after the inward
parts of them." If the reader will now look at Fig. 15, C, which
represents the soft parts of a barnacle when the shells of one side
are removed, he will see how far Sir Robert Moray must have been
the victim—as so many people naturally are under such
circumstances—of imagination and defective memory when he wrote
this account. I have put into italics in the above quotation from his
"Relation" his confession that he is writing, not with his specimens
before him, but from remembrance of them. Moreover, he tells us,
with admirable candour, that the specimens were dead and dry when
he examined them! One could not desire a better justification for the
motto adopted by the Royal Society, "Nullius in verba," and for the
procedure upon which in its early days the Society insisted—namely,
that at its meetings the members should "bring in" a specimen or an
experiment, and not occupy time by mere relations and reports of
marvels. It is necessary even at the present day to insist on such
demonstration by those who urge us to accept as true their relations
of mysterious experiences with ghosts, and their "conviction" that
they have conversed with "discarnate intelligences."
 CHAPTER XV

MORE AS TO THE BARNACLE AND THE

GOOSE

I
T is clear that there was a widespread tradition known to the
learned in the early centuries of the Christian era, according to
which there existed in some distant Eastern land a tree which bore
buds or fruits which became converted into birds. Connected with
this, and perhaps really a part of it, there existed a tradition that
marine "barnacles" gave birth to geese from within their shells, or
are in some way converted into geese. The two stories were in some
localities and narrations combined, though in others they were
distinct. On the coast of Ireland the early missionaries of the Church
(learned men acquainted with the traditions of their time) identified
the migratory brent goose with the bird said to be produced by the
barnacle; and elsewhere, on the Scottish coast, the barnacles were
(it was reported) found growing on trees. There is no such
resemblance between barnacles and brent geese as to have
suggested to the Irish monks the regular and natural conversion of
one into the other. It seems most probable that the learned
churchmen knew the traditional story already before arriving in
Ireland, and applied it to the barnacles and the geese which they
discovered around them. Eventually the word "barnacle" without
qualification was applied to the geese, as we see in Gerard's account
given in the last chapter. Is there, it may be asked, anything further
known as to such a tradition, and the place and manner of its origin?
In the absence of such knowledge, an ingenious attempt was made
by my old friend, Professor Max Müller, to account for the tradition
by the similarity of the names, which he erroneously supposed had
been given independently to the barnacle and to the "Hibernian"
goose. I will refer to this below, but now I will proceed to give the
most probable solution of the mystery as to the tradition of the tree,
the goose, and the barnacle. Its discovery is not more than twenty
years old, and is due to M. Frederic Houssay, a distinguished French
zoologist of the Ecole Normale, who published it in the "Revue
Archeologique" in 1895. It has not hitherto been brought to the
notice of English readers, and I shall therefore give a full account of
it.

Fig. 14.—Fanciful designs by Mykenæan artists, showing change of the

cuttle-fish (octopus or "poulpe") into a bull's head and other shapes.
a, Octopus drawn on a goblet from Crete, the arms reduced to two, the eyes
detached.
b and c, Bull's head variations of the octopus, from designs found at Koban
in the Caucasus.
d, Spiral treatment of the arms of the octopus (a pose actually seen in living
specimens).
e, f, Human faces painted on Cretan jars across the whole width of the neck,
the design being derived from the octopus with detached eyes as in Fig. a.
Such designs survive long after their origin is forgotten, as (according to M.
 Houssay) the legend of the barnacle and the goose survived two thousand
years after the Mykenæan drawings assimilating one to the other had been
forgotten.
The solution is as follows: The Mykenæan population of the islands
of Cyprus and Crete, in the period 800 to 1000 years before Christ,
were great makers of pottery, and painted large earthernware basins
and vases with a variety of decorative representations of marine life,
of fishes, butterflies, birds, and trees. Some of these are to be seen
in the British Museum at Bloomsbury, where I examined them a few
years ago. Others have been figured by the well-known
archæologists, MM. Perrot and Chipiez, in the sixth volume of their
work, "L'Ossuaire de Crète." M. Perrot consulted M. Houssay, in his
capacity of zoologist, in regard to these Mykenæan drawings, which
bear, as M. Houssay states, the evidence of having been designed
after nature by one who knew the things in life, although they are
not slavishly "copied" from nature. These early Mykenæan painters
on pottery were members of a community who worshipped the great
mother—"Nature"—as Astarte or Aphrodite risen from the foam of
the sea. Being sailors and fishermen, marine life was even more
familiar to them than that of the land, and they placed little models
of sea animals as votive offerings in the temples of the great mother,
and also honoured her in decorating their pottery with marine
creatures. The little fish, Hippocampus, called the sea-horse, the
sea-urchin, the octopus, the argonaut and its floating cradle, the
sea-anemone, and the butterfly-like Pteropod, were subjects used by
these artists for which they found terrestrial counterparts. The sea-
horse was convertible decoratively into a true horse, with
intermediate phases imagined by the artists; the sea-urchin into a
hedgehog, the sea-anemone into a flower, and the Pteropod into a
true butterfly. These artists loved to exercise a little fancy and
ingenuity. By gradual reduction in the number and size of
outstanding parts—a common rule in the artistic "schematizing" or
"conventional simplification" of natural form—they converted the
octopus and the argonaut, with their eight arms, into a bull's head
with a pair of spiral horns (Fig. 14). In the same spirit it seems that
they observed and drew the barnacle floating on timber or thrown
up after a storm on their shores. They detected a resemblance in the
marking of its shells to the plumage of a goose, whilst in the
curvature of its stalk they saw a resemblance to the long neck of the
bird. The barnacle's jointed plumose legs or cirri and other details
suggested points of agreement with the feathers of the bird. They
brought the barnacle and the goose together, not guided thereto by
any pre-existing legend, but by a simple and not uncommon artistic
desire to follow up a superficial suggestion of similarity and to
conceive of intermediate connecting forms. Some of their fanciful
drawings with this purpose are shown in Figs. 15, 16, and 17. These
(excepting the drawing of the barnacle lying within its opened shell)
are copied from M. Houssay's paper on the subject, and were taken
from the work of M. Perrot on Cretan pottery.
Fig. 15.—The Goose and the Barnacle.
A, Drawing of a Ship's Barnacle attached to a piece of timber by its "peduncle" or
stalk, which represents the neck of a goose, if we regard the shell-covered region
as the goose's body. From a sketch by M. Frederic Houssay published in the
"Revue Archæologique," January 1895.
B, Copy of a drawing on an ancient Mykenæan pot found in Crete, and figured by
M. Perrot in his "Ossuaire de Crète" vol. vi. p. 936. It is a fantastic blend of the
goose and the barnacle. The barnacle's stalk is given a beak and an eye; the body
of the bird corresponds to the shells of the barnacle both in shape and marking.
There are no wings or legs, but the curious single limb which I have marked pe is
obviously the same thing as that marked pe in figure C, which represents the
barnacle when cut open so as to show the structures within the shell, pe is the
rod-like body at the end of which the seminal duct opens. It is seen in the drawing
of the expanded barnacle (Fig. 10), lying between the two groups of six forked
and jointed legs or "cirri."
C, A correct modern drawing of a ship's barnacle, with the shells of one side
removed so as to show the six double legs of one side, the seminal rod (pe), and
the internal organs. This is what Sir Robert Moray and his mediaeval predecessors
saw on opening the barnacle's shell and described as "a young bird complete in
every detail."
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