The Huon Gulf and Its Hinterlands: A Long-Term View of Coastal Highlands Interactions

Abstract

Interactions between people living on the coast and in the highlands of New Guinea have a long prehistory. It is proposed here that in the mid-Holocene they were based on the exchange of bird plumes and other valuable items. About eight percent of the world’s bird species are found in New Guinea. The birds of paradise (Paradisaeidae) are some of the most beautiful—no other group of birds has such diverse and splendid plumage (Swadling 1996:49). The most spectacular species live in the forests of New Guinea’s mountains and ranges (Frith and Beehler 1998). Given the presence of such birds in New Guinea, it is perhaps not surprising that avian features dominate the decorations on prehistoric stone mortars and pestles. Anthropomorphic representations also occur but are less frequent. Most of the mortars and pestles decorated with imagery occur in the eastern half of New Guinea, namely Papua New Guinea. This form of decoration is rare in the New Guinea Islands and West Papua. The study sample of prehistoric mortars and pestles presented here consists of a database under construction by the author. It is based on museum collections, including those at the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery, and the holdings of many Australasian, European and American museums, as well as published and unpublished material. Contributions by readers to this database are most welcome. Little is known about the stone sources of these prehistoric artefacts. Berndt (1954:587) reports that a geologist found that his Eastern Highlands collection of mortars and pestles could have been made from locally obtained stone. The Ambum figure from Enga is also deemed to have been made in the area where it was collected (Tworek-Matuszkiewicz 2001). The only stone mortar, pestle or figure reported from New Guinea which may be made from stone foreign to the region where it was found is a stone mortar excavated in the Kuk swamp of the Western Highlands (Golson 2000:233-34). Prehistoric stone mortars and pestles occur in areas formerly and currently suitable for taro cultivation (Swadling and Hide n.d.). They have an age range of roughly from 8000 to 3000 years ago. The geographical distribution for stone mortars and pestles, especially those decorated with avian features, have the potential to add to our knowledge of the mid-Holocene. The distribution patterns for those mortars and pestles decorated with bird features demonstrate that there were two important interaction spheres between the highlands and the coastline of Papua New Guinea. One sphere, which is characterised mainly by bird pestles, extended from the coast of the former Sepik-Ramu inland sea into the Central Highlands, mainly Western Highlands to Simbu (Swadling and Hide n.d.). The other The Huon Gulf and Its Hinterlands: A Long-Term View of Coastal-Highlands Interactions

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