Petrographic analyses of sand temper/inclusions in ceramics of Kikiniu, Kikori River and modern sand samples from the Gulf Province (Papua New Guinea)

Abstract

The archaeological site of Kikiniu (a.k.a. Kulupuari) in the mid-reaches of the Kikori River, Gulf Province (Papua New Guinea) contains a rich assemblage of ceramic sherds dating to 1550-1000 calBP. This is a region for which there is no ethnographic and no prior archaeological evidence of ceramic manufacture, but for which during the ethnographic period premade pottery vessels are well known to have been imported en masse from long-distance seafarers from Yule Island and Port Moresby. Here we present initial petrographic analyses of sand temper/inclusions from 20 excavated sherds from Kikiniu, and 14 samples of modern beach and river sand collected across the area, to determine whether the Kikiniu ceramics could have been locally manufactured, and if not, from where they were imported. Our preliminary results confirm that the majority of the sherds, and possibly all, are from ceramics that were probably imported from manufacturing sites to the south-east. Given that the Kikiniu region was then a rainforest, sago-rich region, ceramics probably arrived at Kikiniu as part of the sago trade as far back as c.1550-1000 calBP. RÉSUMÉLe site archéologique de Kikiniu (alias Kulupuari) qui se trouve sur le tronçon intermédiaire de la rivière Kikori, Province du Golfe (Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée) contient un riche assemblage céramique datant de 1550à 1000 calBP. C'est une région pour laquelle il n'y a aucune preuve ethnographique et archéologique de la fabrication de la céramique. En revanche pendant la période ethnographique, des poteries pré-faites bien connus ontété importées en masse par voie maritime depuis l'île de Yule ainsi que de Port Moresby. Nous présentons ici les premières analyses pétrographiques des dégraissants sableux et inclusions de 20 tessons de Kikiniu, ainsi que de 14 echantillons de sables provenant de plages et rivières locales, afin de savoir si les céramiques de Kikiniu ontété fabriquées localement, et si non, d'ou elles ontété importées. Nos résultats préliminaires confirment que la majorité des tessons, et peut-être tous, sont issus de céramiques probablement importées de sites de fabrications situés plusà l'est. Compte tenu que la région de Kikiniuétait alors recouverte d'une forêt tropicale riche en sagou, les céramiques de Kikiniu sont probablement arrivées dans le cadre d'un commerce d'échange avec le sagou entre 1550 et 1000 calBP.

Identifying 3000-Year Old Human Interaction Spheres in Central Fiji through Lapita Ceramic Sand-Temper Analyses

“…The use of optical microscopy and scanning electron microscope analyses in ceramic sand-temper analyses helps to underline the importance of geology to an understanding of ancient peoples and their cultures. This study has shown that the use of temper to reconstruct exchange networks is illuminating and gathering momentum in the Pacific Islands [3,6,15,41,42] and elsewhere in the world [8,43,44].…”

The difficulty of sourcing prehistoric pottery from Bootless Bay, Central Province, Papua New Guinea

“…Finally, minerals/inclusions were quantified as to their abundance, borrowing the idea of point counting from sedimentary petrology, that is to count the grain types/clay matrix falling beneath the intersection points of a rectilinear grid on the printed out 2000 × 1875 pixels SEM maps, resulting in a 100-point count for each SEM map. While frequency counting has been used most commonly in the Pacific (Dickinson 2006), the two other studies to have employed petrographic analysis of temper on the south coast of Papua New Guinea (Marsaglia et al 2016;Worthing 1980aWorthing , 1980bWorthing , 1982 both employed point counting.…”

“…Because of this connection between pottery and trade, there have been a number of pottery sourcing or characterisation studies completed on the south coast of Papua New Guinea (e.g. Bickler 1997;Frankel et al 1994;Marsaglia et al 2016;Rye and Duerden 1982;Summerhayes and Allen 2007;Sutton et al 2019;Vigalys and Summerhayes 2016;Worthing 1980aWorthing , 1980bWorthing , 1982Worthing and Swadling 1980). In particular, multiple sourcing studies have aimed at establishing a link between the Port Moresby region as a pottery-producing area and Gulf Province sites known historically or assumed to have been pottery consumers within the hiri trade network, although these studies have varied in terms of both methodology and results.…”

“…The sourcing techniques utilised have included petrography (Frankel et al 1994;Marsaglia et al 2016;Worthing 1980aWorthing , 1980bWorthing , 1982Worthing and Swadling 1980), X-ray fluorescence or XRF (Bickler 1997) and PIXE (Rye and Duerden 1982; see also Allen and Duerden 1982). Different techniques mean that different information has been retrieved from the pottery.…”

“…A limitation of our study was our inability to distinguish chert, a clear marker of Worthing's results. However, the SEM analysis improved upon other parts of Worthing's analysis, as the geochemical approach provides the ability to distinguish more easily between quartz and feldspar, as well as between pyroxenes and amphiboles (see Marsaglia et al 2016 who note difficulty with this). Petrography of thin sections, in addition to SEM analysis, would therefore be a way forward for improving this type of analysis.…”