Maritime Coastal and Island Societies of Australia and New Guinea

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Rowland ◽  
Ben Shaw ◽  
Sean Ulm
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Marine Resources ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Mobile Populations ◽  
Multidisciplinary Studies ◽  
Abundance And Distribution ◽  
Vast Area

Coasts, islands, and marine resources played a central role in the dispersal of people into and across Sahul (the combined landmass of New Guinea and Australia). This vast area spans tropical and temperate latitudes, with changes in the abundance and distribution of coastal resources having greatly influenced how people used these landscapes. Little is known of early coastal and island occupation in the millennia after colonisation because sites of this antiquity are now under water, and most islands formed in the Holocene following the postglacial rise in sea level. Current evidence indicates that small, mobile populations harvested nearshore shellfish and fish by 44–42 ka, with long-distance sea voyaging and interisland trade apparent by 25–20 ka. Increasingly intensive coast and island use is evident by the Mid-Holocene, with specialised maritime economies emerging in tropical latitudes throughout the Late Holocene. Although large gaps remain in our understanding of coastally oriented lifeways, multidisciplinary studies are increasingly challenging global paradigms about the antiquity and importance of marine resources on human cultural development.

COMBINING ORAL TRADITIONS AND BAYESIAN CHRONOLOGICAL MODELING TO UNDERSTAND VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT IN THE GULF OF PAPUA (PAPUA NEW GUINEA)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Chris Urwin ◽  
Quan Hua ◽  
Henry Arifeae
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Spatial History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gulf Of Papua ◽  
The Village

ABSTRACT When European colonists arrived in the late 19th century, large villages dotted the coastline of the Gulf of Papua (southern Papua New Guinea). These central places sustained long-distance exchange and decade-spanning ceremonial cycles. Besides ethnohistoric records, little is known of the villages’ antiquity, spatiality, or development. Here we combine oral traditional and 14C chronological evidence to investigate the spatial history of two ancestral village sites in Orokolo Bay: Popo and Mirimua Mapoe. A Bayesian model composed of 35 14C assays from seven excavations, alongside the oral traditional accounts, demonstrates that people lived at Popo from 765–575 cal BP until 220–40 cal BP, at which time they moved southwards to Mirimua Mapoe. The village of Popo spanned ca. 34 ha and was composed of various estates, each occupied by a different tribe. Through time, the inhabitants of Popo transformed (e.g., expanded, contracted, and shifted) the village to manage social and ceremonial priorities, long-distance exchange opportunities and changing marine environments. Ours is a crucial case study of how oral traditional ways of understanding the past interrelate with the information generated by Bayesian 14C analyses. We conclude by reflecting on the limitations, strengths, and uncertainties inherent to these forms of chronological knowledge.

Swamp and Delta Societies of the Papuan Gulf, Papua New Guinea

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Urwin ◽  
James W. Rhoads ◽  
Joshua A. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Large River ◽  
Place Making ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
River Deltas ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
Key Sites

The Papuan Gulf’s littoral coastline has been emerging and transforming since the late Pleistocene. Large river deltas such as the Fly, Kikori, and Purari transport sediments into the Coral Sea, and these are reworked by prevailing tides and seasonal currents to form a world of sand and swamps that Papuan Gulf peoples inhabit. This article reviews the archaeology of key sites in the region and identifies themes for future explorations of the region’s rich heritage. It explores how the region’s delta-dwelling societies occupied, modified, and made sense of their relatively fluid physical environments. Two aspects are explored in detail: (1) the potential to historicize the emergence of sago cultivation and its role in sustaining local settlements and long-distance trade; and (2) the contribution of nuanced spatial histories of migration and place-making to the region’s narrative.

Paleoecological implications of the first prehistoric record of water vole (Microtus richardsoni) from Washington state, USA

2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-387
Author(s):  
R. Lee Lyman
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Sampling Error ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Cascade Range ◽  
Western Montana ◽  
Water Vole ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The North ◽  
Long Distance Transport ◽  
Distance Transport

AbstractRemains of the North American water vole (Microtus richardsoni) have previously been recovered from late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits in southwestern Alberta, western Montana, and north-central Wyoming. All are within the historically documented modern range of the metapopulation occupying the Rocky Mountains; no ancient remains of this large microtine have previously been reported from the metapopulation occupying the Cascade Range. Four lower first molar specimens from the late Holocene Stemilt Creek Village archaeological site in central Washington here identified as water vole are from the eastern slope of the Cascade Range and are extralimital to the metapopulation found in those mountains. There is no taphonomic evidence indicating long-distance transport of the teeth, and modern trapping records suggest the local absence of water voles from the site area today is not a function of sampling error. The precise age of the Stemilt Creek Village water voles is obscure but climate change producing well-documented late Holocene advances of nearby alpine glaciers could have created habitat conditions conducive to the apparent modest shift in the range of the species represented by the remains.

scholarly journals Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effects for the Mesolithic and Medieval Periods in the Western Isles of Scotland

Radiocarbon ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippa L Ascough ◽  
Mike J Church ◽  
Gordon T Cook
Keyword(s):  
Probability Density Function ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Marine Resources ◽  
Critical Periods ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Cold Event ◽  
Data Set ◽  
C Dynamics ◽  
Probability Density Function Pdf ◽  
Existing Data

AbstractThis article presents new values for the Scottish marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) during the Mesolithic at 4540–4240 BC (6490–6190 BP) and the Medieval period at AD 1460–1630 (490–320 BP). The results give a ΔR of –126±3914C yr for the Mesolithic and of –130±3614C yr for the Medieval. We recalculate previously published MRE values for the earlier Holocene in this region, at 6480–6290 BC (8430–8180 BP). Here, MRE values are slightly elevated, with a ΔR of 64±4114C yr, possibly relating to the 8.2ka BP cold event. New values for the Mesolithic and Medieval indicate lower MRE values, broadly consistent with an existing data set of 37 mid- to late Holocene assessments for Scottish waters, indicating stable ocean conditions. We compare the intercept and probability density function (PDF) methods for assessing ΔR. The ΔR values are indistinguishable, but confidence intervals are slightly larger with the PDF method. We therefore apply this more conservative method to calculate ΔR. The MRE values presented fill important gaps in understanding Scottish marine14C dynamics, providing confidence when calibrating material from critical periods in Scotland’s prehistory, particularly the Mesolithic, when the use of marine resources by coastal populations was high.

Recent Research in Central Asia

1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-795 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip L. Kohl
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Internal Drainage ◽  
Iranian Plateau ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
The North ◽  
Hindu Kush ◽  
Logical Unit ◽  
Vast Area

This article summarizes recent prehistoric research in western Central Asia (Western Turkestan) or the area of internal drainage towards the Caspian and Aral Seas, stretching from the Pamir massif and Fergana valley in the east to the Caspian in the west, and from the Aral in the north to the Hindu Kush watershed in Afghanistan and the eastern extension of the Alborz chain and the Iranian plateau in the south (Figure 1). This vast area contains distinct ecological zones ranging from high intermontane valleys to piedmont and alluvial plains, yet despite this diversity and its inevitable consequences for cultural development, certain shared features unite the area into a logical unit of analysis. Western Turkestan is a land of interior drainage with access to no seas other than the landlocked Caspian and Aral basins.

Archaeozoological Records for the Highlands of New Guinea: A Review of Current Evidence

2009 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Sutton ◽  
Mary-Jane Mountain ◽  
Ken Aplin ◽  
Susan Bulmer ◽  
Tim Denham
Keyword(s):  
New Guinea ◽  
Current Evidence

scholarly journals First results of the hunter-gatherer weapon system studies in the middle basin of the Salado creek (Pampas Region, Argentina)

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Barros ◽  
Guillermo Heider ◽  
María Clara Álvarez ◽  
Cristian Kaufmann ◽  
Jonathan Bellinzoni
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
Triangular Points ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Weapon Systems ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
First Results ◽  
Pampas Region

In this paper we present the results of the study of 32 projectile points from Hangar site, located in the Salado creek basin (centre of the province of Buenos Aires). Archaeological materials recovered from the site include some isolated human remains, several potsherds, faunal materials, and lithic artefacts. The presence of pottery and small triangular points, together with the radiocarbon dating results, indicate that the main occupations occurred during the end of the Late Holocene. Methodology used included the techno-typological study of the lithic assemblage. Results showed that the outcrops of some rocks present in the sample are found in the Humid Pampas (100-190 km distant from the site) and the Dry Pampas (400-530 km distant from the site). The projectile points show variability in design and size, attributes that have implications for distinguishing different weapon systems (e.g., arrow and dart). In the Pampas region, the Late Holocene is a period characterized by an increasing complexity in hunter-gatherer societies, as it is indicated by long-distance exchange networks and different strategies of intensification and diversification on faunal resources. In accordance with this scenario, we propose that the variability that is observed in the lithic points is a reflex of an increase in the amount of the hunted species in relation with technological innovations such as the introduction of the bow and arrow.

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