The Creation of a Papua New Guinean Landscape: Archaeological and Geomorphological Evidence

Abstract

This paper analyzes the creation of a landscape in Papua New Guinea over the past 3500 years under human influence. The Arawe Island group off the south coast of West New Britain Province in Papua New Guinea has been the subject of archaeological and geomorphological study from 1986 to 1992. The evidence of sediments and the artifacts they contain offer a record of the long term history of the region.

The fullest evidence comes from the Lapita period dating from 3500 to 2000 b.p., which has assemblages characterized by dentate stamped pottery, obsidian, and shell. During the Lapita period in the Arawes there is evidence of a clustered settlement pattern in the form of stilt villages built in shallow water on the lee sides of islands. These villages caused the buildup of beach sand beneath and around them; this has been preserved as low beach ridges by a slight fall in sea level (<1 m). Clays eroded from the interiors of the islands have been dammed behind these beach ridges. Thus during the Lapita period many of the features of the lowland portions of the islands as they exist today were created by human patterns of land use.