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

Abstract

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.