Tanamu 1: Conclusions and future directions

Tanamu 1 presents a cross-section of some of the major time periods represented in the Caution Bay archaeological landscape, and as such provides a useful starting point for the detailed publication of the results of excavations by which to eventually bridge the space between site-specific and landscape-scale patterns and trends. Across three broad phases of occupation, the site provides a window onto the extent and shape of pre-ceramic occupation in the c. 1700 years leading up to the emergence of the Lapita cultural complex in the Bismarck Archipelago c. 3300 cal BP (e.g., Denham et al. 2012), the nature of the terminal Lapita period which ends at 2600–2550 cal BP at Caution Bay (David et al. 2019), and the past 2750 years leading into the ethnographic present. In this volume we have presented detailed data and analyses of the ceramics, stone and shell artefacts, and vertebrate and invertebrate animal remains, and all have yielded their own particular insights. While conclusions about the long-range cultural history of both Tanamu 1 and Caution Bay can be drawn from the data presented here, we also see this as an opportunity to isolate and frame research issues to be pursued in subsequent volumes of the Caution Bay archaeological project

The Archaeology of Tanamu 1: A Pre-Lapita to Post-Lapita Site from Caution Bay, South Coast of Mainland Papua New Guinea

[Extract] The discovery in 2010 of stratified Lapita assemblages at Caution Bay near Port Moresby, south coast of mainland Papua New Guinea (PNG) (David et al. 2011; McNiven et al. 2011), brought to the fore a series of important questions (Richards et al. 2016), many of which also apply to other parts of Island Melanesia where Lapita sites have been known for many decades. Unlike other parts of Melanesia, however, at Caution Bay some of the Lapita sites also have pre-Lapita horizons. A number are culturally very rich. At Caution Bay, where the oldest confirmed Lapita finds date to no earlier than c. 2900 cal BP (McNiven et al. 2012a), the major questions do not concern the earliest expressions of Lapita around 3300–3400 cal BP. Rather, here we are concerned more with identifying how assemblages associated with the Lapita cultural complex arrived and transformed along the south coast, after a presence in coastal and island regions to the northeast over the previous 400 years. These concerns contain both spatial and temporal elements: how and when, as a prelude to why, particular cultural traits continued and changed across Caution Bay. Tanamu 1 is the first of 122 archaeological sites excavated in Caution Bay upon which we will report. As a site, it represents the ideal entry point, as being a coastal site which contains pre-Lapita, Lapita and post-Lapita horizons it encapsulates many of the signatures, trends and transformations seen across the >5000 year Caution Bay sequence at large. Of special note in the wider context of Lapita archaeology, the presence of rich pre-Lapita horizons is what makes Caution Bay so important both in and of itself and for the Lapita story

Emerging out of Lapita at Caution Bay

[Extract] The discovery in 2010 of stratified Lapita assemblages at Caution Bay near Port Moresby, south coast of mainland Papua New Guinea (PNG) (David et al. 2011; McNiven et al. 2011), brought to the fore a series of important questions (Richards et al. 2016), many of which also apply to other parts of Island Melanesia where Lapita sites have been known for many decades. Unlike other parts of Melanesia, however, at Caution Bay some of the Lapita sites also have pre-Lapita horizons. A number are culturally very rich. At Caution Bay, where the oldest confirmed Lapita finds date to no earlier than c. 2900 cal BP (McNiven et al. 2012a), the major questions do not concern the earliest expressions of Lapita around 3300–3400 cal BP. Rather, here we are concerned more with identifying how assemblages associated with the Lapita cultural complex arrived and transformed along the south coast, after a presence in coastal and island regions to the northeast over the previous 400 years. These concerns contain both spatial and temporal elements: how and when, as a prelude to why, particular cultural traits continued and changed across Caution Bay. Tanamu 1 is the first of 122 archaeological sites excavated in Caution Bay upon which we will report. As a site, it represents the ideal entry point, as being a coastal site which contains pre-Lapita, Lapita and post-Lapita horizons it encapsulates many of the signatures, trends and transformations seen across the >5000 year Caution Bay sequence at large. Of special note in the wider context of Lapita archaeology, the presence of rich pre-Lapita horizons is what makes Caution Bay so important both in and of itself and for the Lapita story

Tanamu 1: A 5000 year sequence from Caution Bay

[Extract] Archaeological sites across Caution Bay often contain distinctive artefactual horizons of varying ages, making it possible to investigate cultural trends at a range of spatial and temporal scales over extended periods of time. Tanamu 1 is a site of particular interest because of its three distinct major occupation horizons that start with the pre-ceramic, followed by Lapita, and end with post-Lapita. The aim of this chapter is to report details of the site, focusing on its chronostratigraphy, so that its various cultural materials (reported in detail in Chapters 3–7) can be examined in context

A Holocene record of savanna vegetation dynamics in southern lowland Papua New Guinea

The southern lowlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) are biogeographically distinct. Vast tracts of savanna vegetation occur there and yet most palaeoecological studies have focused on highlands and/or forest environments. Greater focus on long-term lowland environments provides a rare opportunity to understand and promote the significance of local and regional savannas, ultimately allowing non-forested and forested ecosystem dynamics to be compared. This paper examines palaeoecological and archaeological data from a lowland open savanna site situated on the south-central PNG coastline. The methods used incorporate pollen and micro-charcoal analyses, artefact recovery and sediment descriptions. We conclude with an environmental model of sedimentation and vegetation change for the past c. 5,800 years, revealing a mid to late Holocene savanna interchange between herbaceous and woody plant growth, with fluctuating fire occurrence increasing toward the present day. Increased silt deposition and modified regional hydrology are also recorded. Environmental changes correspond in timing with the start of permanent settlements and human use of fire. In particular, landscape burning for hunting and gardens for agriculture have helped create the open ecosystem still evident today

Ruisasi 1 and the earliest evidence of mass-produced ceramics in Caution Bay (Port Moresby region), Papua New Guinea

The history of pottery use along the south coast of Papua New Guinea spans from Lapita times, here dated to 2900–2600 cal BP, through to mass production of pottery associated with a number of ethnographically-known interaction (and exchange) networks. Understanding the antecedents and developmental histories of these interaction networks is of considerable importance to archaeological research from local to western Pacific geographical scales. The archaeological site of Ruisasi 1 located at Caution Bay near Port Moresby provides new insights into scales of pottery production before the development of the regional Motu hiri exchange system within the past 500 years. Here faunal remains indicate occupation by marine specialists who exploited a diverse range of local marine environments. Nearly 20,000 ceramic sherds are present in Square A, mostly from a 26 cm thick ‘pottery midden’. A minimum of 45 red slip/plainware vessels based on conjoined sets of sherds plus two vessels with incised decoration are present; the maximum number of clay vessels based on Fabric Types is 155. The globular red slip/plainware pots have highly standardized shapes and sizes, consistent with mass pottery production. The concentration of sherds from these pots within the pottery midden reflects short-duration depositional events within the period of village life c. 1630–1220 cal BP. Whether or not the pots were made locally or imported is the subject of ongoing research. Whatever the case, Ruisasi 1 raises the possibility of mass pottery production possibly linked to a regional interaction network pre-dating the hiri

Moiapu 3: Settlement on Moiapu Hill at the very end of Lapita, Caution Bay hinterland

The Caution Bay archaeological project on the south coast of mainland Papua New Guinea has excavated 122 sites over a 9 km² area. Lapita ceramics appear at a number of sites at c. 2900 cal. BP. Here we present the results of excavations at Moiapu 3, a site that helps define the end of the dentate-stamped Lapita phase of this region. It is suggested that the decline and ultimate cessation of dentate stamping related to a loss of symbolism during a period of major socioeconomic readjustment and innovation

Preceramic shell‐working, Caution Bay and the circum-New Guinea archipelago

Excavations at Caution Bay along the southeast coast of mainland New Guinea have been undertaken in 122 archaeological sites that together cover the past 6,000 years of cultural history. Both preceramic and ceramic assemblages are present. Tanamu 1 is one of these sites, its preceramic assemblage of worked shell forming the basis of the following discussion. In the absence of any regional formulations of preceramic worked shell technologies in line with either particular geographical areas or recognised socio-cultural groups, we here investigate similarities and differences in shell-working technologies and types across the Circum-New Guinea Archipelago through time, and what these may mean for the configurations of preceramic cultural traditions and geographies. Given the extremely scattered and partial nature of current understandings of large areas of the Circum-New Guinea Archipelago, this analysis of worked shell assemblages acts as a launching point from which to explore the broader region’s spatial history

Archaeology in Port Moresby and the southern lowlands of Papua New Guinea: intellectual and historical contexts for Caution Bay

Until the Caution Bay project, limited archaeological research in the Port Moresby region and, more broadly, along the entire southern lowlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) had been almost exclusively restricted to sites of the past 2000 years, representing that period after the arrival of ceramicists. This limited window of time covered by the archaeological evidence had critical impacts for how we have since come to understand the long-term history of the entire region, and thus for how the Caution Bay finds themselves came to be slotted-in to a predetermined cultural pattern incorporating hypothesized ceramic transactions along vast distances of coastline. Here we revisit this archaeological setting, as it sets the scene for how our understanding of the long-term history of the southern lowlands needs to be rethought in light of the Caution Bay results, and, on the other hand, for how some of these new results confirm other pre-existing patterns

Introduction to the Caution Bay archaeology project

The first volume of the Caution Bay monographs is designed to introduce the goals of the Caution Bay project, the nature and scope of the investigations and the cultural and natural setting of the study area. To this end a series of chapters are included on the ethnographic and linguistic setting, the present and past natural environment, archaeological surveys of the study area and investigative and analytical methods. These background chapters will be repeatedly referred to in all the other monographs, as foundational reference materials for the broader study