Trees to the sky : prehistoric hunting in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the nature of prehistoric hunting strategies in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. New Ireland contains the earliest radiocarbon determinations for human occupation and therefore provides an opportunity to investigate colonisation. It also has a depauperate fauna compared to New Guinea and therefore provides an opportunity to investigate subsequent human adaptations. Hunting strategies are investigated through an analysis of the Buang Merabak faunal assemblage. The Buang Merabak assemblage contains prehistoric food refuse including shell and bone midden material and stone artefacts. The results of the faunal analysis are interpreted to investigate issues of resource use, land use and mobility. Resource use is reflected through prey selectivity and provides the opportunity to investigate the nature of hunting specialisation as a mechanism of adaptation. Prey taxa have discrete ecological requirements that are the parameters of their spatial distribution across the island. Notions of human land use are reflected through the spatial distribution of the prey taxa and are interpreted as a reflection of both on site and off site activities. In order to exploit each particular taxon the hunter must interact with the prey within the prey's environment. Therefore within the hunting context, human land use is reflected by the prey they capture and bring back to the site. Mobility is reflected through resource use and land use. The spatial distribution of the prey taxa reflects the distance the hunter must cover in order to capture the prey and return to the site. In this context, mobility is notionally a relative scale that rates the degree of movement required to exploit the resources reflected in the assemblage. The results are brought together to suggest a New Ireland specific model of behaviour that can be tested against further research. This dissertation argues that terrestrial faunas such as Dobsonia sp. bats and the Phalanger orienta/is were an important aspect of the Late-Pleistocene subsistence economy in New Ireland