Rock engravings and occupation sites in the Mount Bosavi Region, Papua New Guinea: Implications for our understanding of the human presence in the Southern Highlands

Abstract

An extensive body of engraved rock art on the Great Papuan Plateau is documented here for the first time, along with the first dates for occupation. Consisting largely of deeply abraded or pecked barred ovals and cupules, the rock art of this region does not fit comfortably into any regional models for rock art previously described. It does, however, exhibit some similarity to art in regions to the east and the west of the plateau. Subject to further archaeological testing, we present a number of exploratory hypotheses with which to explain the presence of the engravings; as part of the ethnographic and contemporary Kasua's cultural suite; as part of a relatively recent (late Holocene) migration of peoples from the Gulf to the plateau; or as part of an earlier movement of people from the west, possibly as part of the movement of people into the Sahul continent in the Late Pleistocene. We conclude that the Great Papuan Plateau is not a late and marginally occupied ‘backwater’ but rather part of a possible corridor of human movement across northern Sahul and a region that could allow us to better understand modern humans as they reached the Sahul continent.

Hand stencils and communal history: A case study from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

“…Ethnography in contemporary settings through local people's knowledge with evidence of associated hand stencil production remains a significant and almost entirely unexplored means to interrogate past-present rock art practices. Communities in the western Pacific region continue to create rock art and have knowledge of its creation and significance (e.g., see Ballard, 1992;Lamb et al, 2021;Rosenfeld, 1988;Sand et al, 2006Sand et al, , 2021Specht, 1979;Wilson, 2002;Wilson & Ballard, 2018). In particular, hand stencils in Papua New Guinea (PNG), are still relevant to contemporary societies (Edwards & Sullivan, 2008;Gabriel & Gorecki, 2014;Gorecki & Jones, 1987a, 1987bTsang et al, 2020Tsang et al, , 2021Tsang et al, , 2022 and an opportunity is presented to explore social and cultural contexts through ethnographic methodologies.…”