Report focuses on highlands

A NEW report published in science advances on the emergence of agriculture in the highlands of Papua New Guinea shows advancements often associated with a later neolithic period occurred about 1,000 years’ earlier than previously thought.
Archaeology programme professor and report co-author prof Glenn Summerhayes says findings in emergence of a neolithic in the highlands of PNG by 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, provide insights into when and how the highlands were first occupied; the role of economic plants in this process; the development of trade routes which led to the translocation of plants and technologies; and an associated record of landscape, environment and climate change through time.
The report details the earliest figurative stone carving and formally manufactured pestles in Oceania, dating to 5,050 to 4,200 years ago, which were found at a dig-site in Waim, Jiwaka.
The Waim site is situated on the apex of a prominent steep-sided spur on the southern side of the Bismarck Range of the Kalam language area, Jimi valley in Jiwaka.
Also found were the earliest planilateral axe-adzes uncovered in PNG to date, and the first evidence for fibercraft and interisland obsidian transfer from neighbouring islands over distances of 800km.
“The new evidence from Waim fills a critical gap in our understanding of the social changes and technological innovations that have contributed to the developing cultural diversity in New Guinea,” Prof Summerhayes said.
The combination of symbolic social systems, complex technologies, and highland agricultural intensification supports an independent emergence of a neolithic around 1,000 years before the arrival of neolithic migrants, the lapita, from Southeast Asia.
When considered together with a growing body of studies indicating expansion and intensification of agricultural practices, these combined cultural elements represent the development of a regionally distinct neolithic.
The research establishes dating for other finds at the site, including a fire lighting tool, postholes and a fibre-craft tool with ochre, possibly used for colouring string fibre.
The report suggested increased population pressure on the uneven distribution of natural resources likely drove this process, which is further inferred by language and genetic divergence.
The project arose out of an Australian research council grant awarded to Dr Judith Field (University of New South Wales) and Prof Summerhayes, according to the University of Otago (New Zealand) on its website.
“Former Otago postgraduate student Dr Ben Shaw was employed as postdoctoral fellow to do the leg work in the field and Dr Anne Ford (Otago archaeology programme) contributed to understandings of the stone tool technologies,” Prof Summerhayes said.
“As it worked out, many of these rich discoveries were made by Dr Shaw.”
“It was one of the best appointments Dr Field and I have ever made. I am proud of our Otago graduates who are some of the best in the world.”
According to the University of Otago, Prof Summerhayes and his team had previously completed a Marsden-funded project in the Ivane valley of Papua, establishing the beginning of human occupation at 50,000 years ago.
The results of this work were published in science in 2010.
“This project is a follow-on where we wanted to construct a chronology of human presence in the Simbai/Kaironk valley of PNG by systematic archaeological survey with subsequent excavation and analysis of a selected number of sites,” he said.
“This work tracks long-term patterns of settlement history, resource use and trade, and establishes an environmental context for these developments by compiling vegetation histories, with particular attention paid to fire histories, indicators of landscape disturbance and markers of climate variability.
“This will add to understandings of peoples’ impact on the environment.”
The University of Otago stated that Prof Summerhayes received a Marsden grant in late 2019 for his project “Crossing the divide from Asia to the Pacific: Understanding Austronesian colonisation gateways into the Pacific”.
This will involve work in the Ramu valley, which was once part of an inland sea, and will tie in the developments of the Highlands of PNG, with the movements of Austronesian speakers into the Pacific. – University of Otago, New Zealand