A Holocene sequence from Walufeni Cave, Southern Highlands Province, and its implications for the settlement of the Great Papuan Plateau, Papua New Guinea

Bryce Barker; Lara Lamb; Matthew Leavesley; Tiina Manne; Andrew Fairbairn; Andrew Coe; Kelsey M. Lowe; Teppsy Beni; Betty Neanda; Maxime Aubert

doi:10.1080/03122417.2023.2175960

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A Holocene sequence from Walufeni Cave, Southern Highlands Province, and its implications for the settlement of the Great Papuan Plateau, Papua New Guinea

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A Holocene sequence from Walufeni Cave, Southern Highlands Province, and its implications for the settlement of the Great Papuan Plateau, Papua New Guinea

Bryce Barker, Lara Lamb, Matthew Leavesley, Tiina Manne, Andrew Fairbairn, Andrew Coe, Kelsey M. Lowe, Teppsy Beni, Betty Neanda and Maxime Aubert

Australian archaeology, Vol.89(1), pp.47-65

2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2023.2175960

Appears in Recent Faculty of Science and Engineering Publications

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Abstract

Great Papuan Plateau

Holocene occupation

Migration

Nassarius shell

rainforest subsistence

Southern Highlands

Terminal Pleistocene

This paper presents preliminary results from the 2019 excavations at Walufeni Cave, at the eastern end of the Great Papuan Plateau (GPP) in western Papua New Guinea. Preliminary dating and analysis of the unfinished excavations at Walufeni Cave span the Holocene and probably continue into the Late Pleistocene, confirming the presence of people on the Plateau from at least the Early Holocene and potentially much earlier. The data presented here offer a site-specific model of early intensive site use from at least 10,000 years ago, then ephemeral use, followed by a sustained Late Holocene occupation. Although there are significant changes in the quantity of material discard over time, there is little evidence for significant change in the subsistence base or technology, reflecting a degree of relative homogeneity until the Late Holocene, when we see the introduction of pig, a change of focus in the plant economy and the presence of marine shell from the southern coast.

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Title: A Holocene sequence from Walufeni Cave, Southern Highlands Province, and its implications for the settlement of the Great Papuan Plateau, Papua New Guinea
Creators: Bryce Barker - University of Southern Queensland
Lara Lamb - University of Southern Queensland
Matthew Leavesley - University of Papua New Guinea
Tiina Manne - University of Queensland
Andrew Fairbairn - University of Queensland
Andrew Coe - University of Southern Queensland
Kelsey M. Lowe - University of Queensland
Teppsy Beni - University of Southern Queensland
Betty Neanda - Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Maxime Aubert - Southern Cross University
Publication Details: Australian archaeology, Vol.89(1), pp.47-65
Publisher: Routledge
Identifiers: 991013103906002368
Copyright: (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

A Holocene sequence from Walufeni Cave, Southern Highlands Province, and its implications for the settlement of the Great Papuan Plateau, Papua New Guinea

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