Australian Museum Journal Early agriculture in the highlands of New Guinea: an assessment of Phase 1 at Kuk Swamp. In A Pacific Odyssey: Archaeology and Anthropology in the Western Pacific. Papers in Honour of Jim Specht
- Shortform:
- Denham, 2004, Rec. Aust. Mus., Suppl. 29: 47–57
- Author(s):
- Denham, Tim
- Year published:
- 2004
- Title:
- Early agriculture in the highlands of New Guinea: an assessment of Phase 1 at Kuk Swamp. In A Pacific Odyssey: Archaeology and Anthropology in the Western Pacific. Papers in Honour of Jim Specht
- Serial title:
- Records of the Australian Museum, Supplement
- Volume:
- 29
- Start page:
- 47
- End page:
- 57
- DOI:
- 10.3853/j.0812-7387.29.2004.1401
- Language:
- English
- Date published:
- 19 May 2004
- Cover date:
- 19 May 2004
- ISBN:
- ISBN 0-9750476-2-0 (printed), ISBN 0-9750476-3-9 (online)
- ISSN:
- 0812-7387
- CODEN:
- RAMSEZ
- Publisher:
- The Australian Museum
- Place published:
- Sydney, Australia
- Subjects:
- ANTHROPOLOGY
- Digitized:
- 19 May 2004
- Available online:
- 19 May 2004
- Reference number:
- 1401
- EndNote package:
- EndNote file
- Title page:
- Title page (11kb PDF)
- Complete work:
- Complete work (1094kb PDF)
Abstract
The wetland archaeological evidence for Phase 1 at Kuk Swamp, Wahgi Valley, Papua New Guinea, is evaluated in terms of previous interpretations of the artificiality and agricultural function of the palaeochannel and palaeosurface. The evaluation concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to warrant claims of artificiality for the palaeochannel and some palaeosurface elements. Drawing on previous multi-stranded arguments proposed by Jack Golson and Philip Hughes, new lines of multidisciplinary evidence suggest a revised interpretation of the wetland archaeological evidence for Phase 1 at Kuk does not negate a long-term trajectory towards agriculture in the highlands of New Guinea from the Early Holocene.
1 comment
Local -
9.10 PM, 24 October 2011
Hi Tim
I was just reading about Kuk and it reminded me of an interesting thing we found in new guinea in the 1960. I grew up in the highlands, my father was Aub Schindler the agriculturist at Aiyura experiment station. He left his research position in 1960 and owned a coffee plantation 'Karanka'. We found a number of granite utensils that were uncovered on the airstrip site. They were bowls and pestles. The locals at the time told us they were from the 'people before'. It maybe that others already have studied these things. How sad we are not there as there was one of these bowls were used as a water bowl for the animals.