The Karo Batak population of Boven Deli (Sumatra) 1894–1914

Neumann gives the results of his census of Boven Deli in 1914 (13,000 inhabitants), comparing part of it to two earlier but smaller censuses by himself (1904) and by his predecessor, Wijngaarden (1894). In this twenty‐year period, the area's population apparently doubled. Neumann suggests that the major part of the increase happened before 1904, when, after the annexation of the Karo plateau, the government clamped down on migration. He determined that the average family size in 1914 was 4.21 persons.     

The contents of unusual cone-shaped vessels (cornets) from the Chalcolithic of the southern Levant

Cornets are cone-shaped ceramic vessels, characteristic of the Chalcolithic period (ca. 4700–3700 BC) in Israel and Jordan. Their contents and use are unknown. Gas chromatography with flame ionization and mass-selective detection, showed that extracts of cornets from five different sites with different related activities (domestic, habitation cave and a cultic complex) all contain the same assemblage of mainly n-alkanes adsorbed within their walls. This assemblage differs from those found in other types of ceramic vessels from the same sites, as well as from the residues found within the associated sediments. The assemblage of odd and even-numbered n-alkanes found in the cornets is almost identical to that found in the residues of beeswax heated on modern ceramic fragments, as well as in a beehive from the Iron Age IIA strata at Tel Rehov, Israel. Thus the cornets are most likely to have contained beeswax. The presence of beeswax in the cornets contributes to our understanding of the Chalcolithic period; a time when secondary products such as milk, olive oil and wine are thought to have come into use.     

New research on the Holocene settlement and environment of the Chad Basin in Nigeria

Recent investigations of three archaeological sites in the Nigerian part of the Chad Basin during the Holocene reveal key stages in the cultural development and environmental history of that region. At Dufuna, a dugout boat was dated to around 6000 BC, making it the oldest known boat in Africa and one of the oldest in the world. Boats may thus have contributed to the mobility of the population of the southern edge of the Sahara 8000 years ago and, thereby, to the cultural homogeneity of this period. The pottery site at Konduga is around a thousand years younger than Dufuna but still belongs to the time of Mega-Chad. The site is on the Bama Ridge, an old shoreline. Its pottery, decorated in the Saharan tradition, belongs to the earliest ceramic phase of the West African Later Stone Age, long before the beginnings of food production. Although this site was probably settled by pioneers advancing into a largely flooded landscape along the slightly raised shoreline, the human occupation of the area previously covered by Mega-Chad began along a broad front around 2000 BC. Archaeological and palaeoecological finds from two settlement mounds at Gajiganna are described as case studies for this phase, which predates the well-known site of Daima.

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Résumé Les résultats présentés proviennent de recherches récentes sur trois sites archéologiques, dont chacun représente un épisode clé du développement culturel et de l'histoire environnementale du Bassin nigérian du Tchad au cours de l'Holocène. A Dufuna, la découverte d'une pirogue monoxyle, datée d'environ 6000 ans BC, constitue le témoignage le plus ancien d'une embarcation en Afrique et l'un des plus ancien dans le monde. Ce moyen de transport indique la mobilité des populations de la marge sud du Sahara à l'Holocène inférieur et moyen; ce qui a dû contribuer à l'homogénéité culturelle de cette période. Le site à poterie de Konduga est le plus jeune d'un millénaire que Dufuna, mais appartient à l'époque du Méga-Tchad. Le site est installé sur une ancienne ligne de rivage, la Bama Ridge. Sa poterie, décorée selon la tradition saharienne, appartient à la plus ancienne phase à céramique du Later Stone Age ouest-africain, bien avant le début d'une production alimentaire. Vu que ce site ne devait étre occupé que par des pionniers aventurés dans un paysage largement amphibie à la faveur d'un mince cordon émergé, la colonisation de l'espace antérieurement couvert par le Méga-Tchad, débute le long d'un large front vers 2000 ans BC.Les trouvailles archéologiques et paléoécologiques de deux tertres anthropiques à Gajiganna sont décrites commes études de cas illustrant cette phase, qui précède celle du célèbre site de Daima.

     

Nostalgia for Rabaul1

In September 1994, an eruption of the Rabaul Volcano in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, devastated the town of Rabaul and many surrounding Tolai villages. Many villagers were resettled or lived in refugee camps far from their homes. Many non-Tolai residents of Rabaul were repatriated to other parts of Papua New Guinea. Tolai villagers and former residents of Rabaul, be they Papua New Guineans or expatriates, mourned the passing of ‘Rabaul’. This article examines the different nostalgias for Rabaul which are articulated in the Australian print media, by Tolai villagers, and by migrants from the Sepik provinces who had lived in Rabaul prior to the eruption. The article concludes with a reflection on Rabaul as a symbol for the Papua New Guinean nation.     

Book reviews

Australian books

Lionel Wigmore: Struggle for the Snowy, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1968, pp. xx + 215, $8.75.

G. Singer, Margaret Austin, Fil Schofield: On How to Keep Your Gown Clean, Basic Books, Sydney, 1968, pp. 47, 95c.

M. Kahan and D. Aitkin: Drawing a Sample of the Australian Electorate, A.N.U., Research School of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, Occasional Papers no. 3, Canberra, 1968, pp. 46 + viii, n.p.

Malcolm Mackerras: The 1968 Federal Redistribution, A.N.U. Press, Canberra, 1969, pp. 125, $3.50.

Arthur Dean: A Multitude of Counsellors: A History of the Bar of Victoria, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1968, pp. 332 + xiii, $10.50.

Rupert Goodman: Secondary Education in Queensland, 1860–1960, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1968, pp. 396 + xi, $10.50.

Ravinder Kumar: Western India in the Nineteenth Century: a Study in the Social History of Maharashtra, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1968, pp. 347 + xii, $6.90.

Peter Boyce: Malaysia and Singapore in International Diplomacy: Documents and Commentaries, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1968, pp. 268, $6.50.

Alastair Lamb: Asian Frontiers: Studies in a Continuing Problem, F. W. Cheshire for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Melbourne, 1968, $3.50.

J. D. B. Miller (ed.): India, Japan, Australia: Partners in Asia?, A.N.U. Press, Canberra, pp. 212, $6.50.

Non‐Australian books

Daniel Wit: Thailand: Another Vietnam?, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1968, pp. 125, $A3.70.

Radivon Richta (ed.): Civilisation at the Crossroads: Social and Human Implications of the Scientific and Technological Revolution, Australian Left Review Publications, Sydney, 1967, pp. 275, $3.00.

Ruth M. Beard: An Outline of Piaget's Developmental Psychology, Routledge & Kegan Paul Students’ Library of Education, London, 1969, pp. 128 + xvi, $1.55.

Hans G. Furth, Piaget and Knowledge: Theoretical Foundations, Prentice‐Hall, Engle‐wood Cliffs, 1969, pp. 270 + xvii, $9.30.

J. W. Davis and K. M. Dolbeare: Little Groups of Neighbours: The Selective Service System, Markham, Chicago, 1968, pp. 268, $U.S.6.50.

E. J. Feuchtwanger: Disraeli, Democracy and the Tory Party, O.U.P., Melbourne, 1968, pp. 268 + xiv, $6.30.

Arnold J. Heidenheimer and Frank C. Langdon: Business Associations and the Financing of Political Parties: A comparative study of the evolution of practices in Germany, Norway and Japan, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1968, pp. 247 + xxiii.