Archaeological Investigations Into the Origins of Bel Trading Groups Around the Madang Coast, Northeast New Guinea

Gaffney, Dylan; Summerhayes, Glenn R.; Mennis, Mary R.; Beni, Teppsy; Cook, Affrica; Field, Judith; Jacobsen, Geraldine; Allen, Frances; Buckley, Hallie R.; Mandui, Herman

doi:10.1080/15564894.2017.1315349

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Additionally, two undated sherds recovered from the north coast of New Guinea are dentate stamped, and one was demonstrated to be locally produced (Golitko 2011;Terrell and Schechter 2007). A much more frequent red-slipped pottery manufacture occurred around the north coast of Papua New Guinea after about 2000 years ago (Terrell and Schechter 2011), which continued to intensify in the last millennium (Gaffney et al 2018).…”

Section: Circum-new Guinea Ceramics and The Emergence Of Lapitamentioning

confidence: 98%

Late Holocene potting traditions in the far western Pacific: Evidence from the Raja Ampat Islands, 3500–1000 BP

Gaffney,

Tanudirjo

2024

Forty Years in the South Seas: Archaeological Perspectives on the Human History of Papua New Guinea and the Western Pacific Reg

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The question of where Lapita groups derived from, immediately prior to their appearance in the Bismarck Archipelago, is a perennial one; it is a question that remains largely unaddressed owing to a dearth of research in West Papua. This chapter describes two pottery sequences from Waigeo Island in the Raja Ampat group, off the Bird's Head of New Guinea. Mololo Cave preserves pottery from 3100-2700 years ago and possibly 3800-3500 years ago. Some of the sherds are red-slipped and incised, with similarities to Island Southeast Asian Neolithic ceramics, while other sherds share morphological similarities with Lapita plainware. However, intricate decorations like dentate stamping and lime infilling, characteristic of the earliest Island Southeast Asian and Lapita ceramics, are absent. Manwen Bokor Cave preserves pottery from 1300-1000 years ago, with fewer instances of red slip, but more intricate decorations including circle stamping, impression and incision. These later ceramics share affinities with pottery from eastern Wallacea and northern New Guinea, showing a more restricted sphere of influence later in time; that is, there was a process of network contraction and regionalisation between c. 3500 and 1000 BP.Note: This map shows location of ceramic sites, including key excavated sites, Mololo at the entrance to Mayalibit Bay, and Manwen Bokor on the north coast of Waigeo.

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Section: Circum-new Guinea Ceramics and The Emergence Of Lapitamentioning

confidence: 98%

Late Holocene potting traditions in the far western Pacific: Evidence from the Raja Ampat Islands, 3500–1000 BP

Gaffney,

Tanudirjo

2024

Forty Years in the South Seas: Archaeological Perspectives on the Human History of Papua New Guinea and the Western Pacific Reg

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“…Harding (1967) notes that these shells were mass-produced in the Arawe Islands and collected by Siassi traders who transported them across the Vitiaz Strait into mainland networks. The precolonial antecedents of this exchange date no earlier than about 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, with intensive trade only starting within the last few hundred years (Gaffney et al 2017;Lilley 1988). Thus, the final precolonial pulse of shell exchange into the Highlands, and to sites like Kiowa, may be linked to expansions to Highlands exchange networks during the "Ipomoean Revolution," along with the intensification of coastal trading in the last millennia.…”

Section: [Figure 8 About Here]mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Emergence of Shell Valuable Exchange in the New Guinea Highlands

Gaffney

Summerhayes

Szabó

et al. 2018

American Anthropologist

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Shell valuable exchange in the New Guinea Highlands has been a key interest in anthropology, providing insight into economics, aesthetics, and social stratification amongst banded communities. This paper describes how shell exchange at ethnographic present reflects deeper historical processes. We trace the origins and subsequent changes in shell use from the terminal Pleistocene to the Late Holocene at the site of Kiowa in Chimbu Province, Papua New Guinea. Zooarchaeological and technological analyses of Kiowa's shell artifacts indicates riverine mussel was procured locally from the terminal Pleistocene (9,500-10,000 years ago) and featured as a minor component in the diet into the recent precolonial period. In contrast, evidence for marine shell valuables only appears in the Late Holocene in the form of Trochus armbands and Tegillarca granosa and Polymesoda cf. erosa multifunctional tools. This challenges ideas that associate the gradual dispersal of marine shell into the highlands with the spread of agriculture around the Wahgi Valley at the start of the Holocene, and supports punctuated pulses of coastal contact. In doing so, we formulate a testable model for the development of shell exchange into the highlands, with implications for the emergence of stratification and the conduits between the interior and coast. [shell valuables, trade and exchange, coastal contact, stratification, New Guinea Highlands]

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“…In many areas of coastal Papua New Guinea, relatively large quantities of flaked obsidian artefacts are ubiquitous within archaeological contexts (e.g. Fredericksen 1997;Gaffney et al 2018;Golitko et al 2012;Irwin and Holdaway 1996;Mialanes et al 2016;Shaw et al 2021;Summerhayes 2009;Summerhayes et al 1998;White et al 2006). Obsidian was also distributed widely by people colonising other parts of Melanesia (e.g.…”

Section: Social Role Of Exchangementioning

confidence: 99%

Landscapes of exchange in the Willaumez Peninsula, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea

Bonnat,

Torrence,

White

2024

Forty Years in the South Seas: Archaeological Perspectives on the Human History of Papua New Guinea and the Western Pacific Reg

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The well-preserved tephrostratigraphy stretching across the Willaumez Peninsula in West New Britain, Papua New Guinea, provides a unique opportunity to monitor landscapes of cultural exchange over a considerable period of human history, extending from the Pleistocene to the recent past. An approach integrating pXRF geochemical characterisation and measurements of reduction intensity is used to analyse a substantial sample of obsidian artefacts from the FRI site and 25 test pits in the Isthmus region, located at the base of the Willaumez Peninsula. Obsidian exchange is shown to have been a persistent feature of social life, but variations in the mix of sources used and the kinds of objects transferred may also indicate changes in how social networks were constructed. As the frequency and severity of volcanic events decreased through time and population rose in response, the role of obsidian in creating links may have been partially replaced by other objects, such as stone axe blades.

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Archaeological Investigations Into the Origins of Bel Trading Groups Around the Madang Coast, Northeast New Guinea

Cited by 9 publications

References 22 publications

Late Holocene potting traditions in the far western Pacific: Evidence from the Raja Ampat Islands, 3500–1000 BP

Late Holocene potting traditions in the far western Pacific: Evidence from the Raja Ampat Islands, 3500–1000 BP

The Emergence of Shell Valuable Exchange in the New Guinea Highlands

Landscapes of exchange in the Willaumez Peninsula, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea

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