A renewed archaeological and archaeobotanical assessment of house sites at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea

Abstract

House sites located on the wetland margin at Kuk Swamp in the Upper Wahgi Valley of Papua New Guinea were excavated in 1972 and 1973. Macrobotanical remains collected during excavation of domestic contexts were collected and subject to preliminary identification. Renewed macrobotanical analysis of these remains provides a more reliable foundation for their taxonomic identification to species or genus level. Plant remains include sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) and probable sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). Direct Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating of macrobotanical remains provides a reliable basis for determining the antiquity of the house sites and differentiates at least two periods of settlement.

Ten thousand years of cultivation at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea,

“…The evaluation was made in the context of an archaeobotanical analysis of charred plant remains found in association with the houses. New AMS results for House Q overlap with those for House B and are supported by those from Bell's (1976) palaeomagnetic exercise, suggesting that the Tibito ash in the ditch of House Q is not in primary position (see Tables 3 and 1, respectively, of Lewis, Denham and Golson 2016).…”

“…16.13; cf. Swadling 1981: 49), immediately and understandably attributed to sweet potato by the finders, but subsequently identified as lesser yam (Dioscorea esculenta) (see Chapter 16; on these charred plant remains in general see Lewis, Denham and Golson 2016). The house ditch had been redug (as had that of House C) and, at least on the south side, lengthened.…”

“…comm. to Jack Golson), although reanalysis suggests probably Ipomoea batatas (Lewis, Denham and Golson 2016).…”

“…There has been a recent reevaluation of Lampert's conclusions as to the chronology of Houses A, B, P and Q in relation to the fall of Tibito ash (Lewis, Denham and Golson 2016). For Lampert, A and B were younger than the ashfall and so Phase 6 in the Kuk sequence, while P and Q were older and thus Kuk Phase 5.…”

“…Lampert's excavations of 1973 recovered evidence of two houses of an earlier date beneath the Phase 6 mound cluster of 1972, one of them a veranda house, both allocated to Phase 5 because of the presence of Tibito Tephra in the house ditches. A subsequent review of the dating evidence (Lewis, Denham and Golson 2016) has indicated the ash to be in secondary position.…”