Small game hunting in montane rainforests: specialised capture and broad spectrum foraging in the Late Pleistocene to Holocene New Guinea Highlands

Moving into montane rainforests was a unique behavioural innovation developed by Pleistocene Homo sapiens as they expanded out of Africa and through Southeast Asia and Sahul for the first time. However, faunal sequences from these environments that shed light on past hunting practices are rare. In this paper we assess zooarchaeological evidence from Yuku and Kiowa, two sites that span that Pleistocene to Holocene boundary in the New Guinea Highlands. We present new AMS radiocarbon dates and a revision of the stratigraphic sequences for these sites, and examine millennial-scale changes to vertebrate faunal composition based on NISP, MNI, and linear morphometric data to shed light on variability in hunting practices, processes of natural cave deposition, and the local palaeoenvironment at the end of the LGM through to the Late Holocene. We show that Yuku was first occupied at least c. 17,500 years ago and that Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene hunters targeted a wide range of small-bodied and agile species from the mid-montane forest, with a particular focus on cuscus (Phalanger spp.). At Kiowa, occupied from around 12,000 years ago, a similar range of species were targeted, but with an added emphasis on specialised Dobsonia magna fruit bat hunting. We then integrate other zooarchaeological data from the wider Highlands zone to build a model of generalist-specialist hunting dynamics and examine how this more broadly contributes to our understanding of tropical foraging during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene

Holocene hunter-gatherer subsistence practices in the montane Ivane Valley of PNG: a study of ancient starch residues.

Major cultural changes that appeared during the early to mid-Holocene (c.10,000 - 4000 years) are preserved in the archaeological record around the world. A clear understanding of the dynamics of occupation and subsistence in the New Guinea Highlands, however, has yet to be realised due to the few archaeological sites that encompass this significant period of change. The archaeological materials of one of these sites, the Ivane Valley, were investigated to provide insights on their subsistence strategies. The Ivane Valley stratigraphic sequence includes five archaeological horizons. Of particular interest is the Layer 2 record, with radiocarbon dates bracketing the sequence of 8380 - 8200 and 4410 - 4160 years cal. BP. This early to mid-Holocene record is thus contemporary with the important development of wetland exploitation and agriculture at Kuk Swamp, approximately 450km to the northwest. To document the subsistence changes associated with this cultural development, this study examined use-related residues of the Ivane Valley Layer 2 archaeological record, as it can provide insights on the use of economically important plants through time. Ancient starch residues were extracted and documented from a range of stone artefacts that were excavated from the Ivane Valley between 2005 and 2009. The results of the study provide direct evidence and new information about the exploitation of certain plants during the early to mid-Holocene in the New Guinea Highlands. A range of starchy plants were targeted, including tubers and tree nuts, specifically Castanopsis acuminatissima. Of note, an excavated stone mortar fragment was discovered to have high frequencies of C. acuminatissima starch grains preserved on its surface. Interesting contrasts emerged when the ancient starch results from the Ivane Valley were compared to the findings from Kuk Swamp and similar sites. The Ivane Valley has yielded no evidence for the targeted manipulation of the swamp or its resources. This difference suggests that prehistoric cultural developments of the Highlands may have occurred independently of each other, with limited transmission of innovations along the cordillera. The overall results of this research also provide a balance to an archaeological narrative biased towards an agricultural subsistence within the New Guinea Highlands; as the archaeological starch record of the Ivane Valley document the continued hunter-gatherer subsistence economy during the Holocene

Back on the Rat Trail: analyses of ancient mitochondrial genomes of Rattus exulans from the Western Solomons

The Solomon Islands, first settled c.30,000 years ago, sits on the boundary of Near and Remote Oceania. The archipelago played a significant role in major prehistoric Pacific mobility and interactions: such as the Lapita expansion, and settlement of the Polynesian Outliers and Micronesia. Previous genetic studies of commensals have inferred large-scale human migrations across the Pacific, but few samples from the Solomon Islands were included. Here, we present the analysis of ancient DNA from twelve Rattus sp. bones excavated from Sikopo Island in the Western Solomons, dated between 850 - 500 cal. BP. Mitochondrial DNA from nine Rattus exulans (Pacific Rat) specimens were successfully sequenced and thus more than doubled the number of commensal animals sampled from the Solomon Islands. Phylogenetic analyses identified the Sikopo Island rats as more closely related to Polynesian than Near Oceanic samples and showed them to be of a different mitochondrial DNA haplogroup than previously detected in the Solomon Islands. The results are consistent with current hypotheses for multiple introductions of these rats (and therefore human movements) across the Near and Remote Oceania boundary. With consideration of archaeological and other lines of evidence, we propose three scenarios to explain how the Sikopo Island rats may have been introduced into the Western Solomons - two of which involve different long-distance connections with Remote Oceania and the other involves inter-island movements within the Solomon Islands. Overall, our results highlight the potential for further genetic commensal studies in the Solomon Islands to reconstruct prehistoric Pacific population mobility and interaction spheres

Ancient starch analysis of grinding stones from Kokatha Country, South Australia

Identifying the range of plants and/or animals processed by pounding and/or grinding stones has been a rapidly developing research area in world prehistory. In Australia, grinding and pounding stones are ubiquitous across the semi-arid and arid zones and the associated tasks have been mostly informed by ethnographic case studies. More recently, plant microfossil studies have provided important insights to the breadth of plants being exploited in a range of contexts and over long time periods. The preservation of starch and/or phytoliths on the used surfaces of these artefacts is well documented, though the factors determining the survival or destruction of use-related starch residues are still largely unknown. Some of these artefacts have also been used for grinding up small animals and these tasks can be identified by specific staining methods for organic remains such as collagen. In this study, 25 grinding and pounding stones identified during an archaeological project in arid South Australia, were examined for starch and collagen residues. The artefacts were from 3 locations in central South Australia, all located in exposed settings. Of these localities, Site 11 in the Western Valley near Woomera is an important Aboriginal landscape specifically associated with male ceremonial practice in the recent past. The remaining two sites, one in the adjacent Nurrungar Valley and the other near Andamooka 100 km distant, have unrestricted access and potentially a different suite of residues. The Kokatha Mula Nations, the Traditional Owners of Woomera, requested that this study be undertaken to explore the range of plants that may have been processed here. It provided an opportunity to investigate the preservation potential of starch and collagen on grinding stones; explore the range of taphonomic factors involved in the persistence of residues in extreme environmental conditions; and test the methodological developments in identifying specific plant origin of starch residues. Of the 25 grinding/pounding stones tested, 7 yielded starch grains. Geometric morphometric analysis identified 3 economic grass species, Crinum flaccidum (Andamooka Lily) and Typha domingensis (Bulrush/Cumbungi). Folded collagen was identified on one artefact. Oral histories recount the movement between Andamooka and Nurrungar/Western Valley for men's ceremonies, and documented in the movement of stone resources, e.g. oolytic chert. The survival of residues in this environment and the identification of economic plant taxa complement the current knowledge of ceremonial activities and the movement of people and resources across significant distances in arid South Australia