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Reconstructing settlement histories in the Papua New Guinea Highlands through ceramic analysis and oral traditions

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Abstract

This study explores the scope for using ceramic and geochemical analyses to substantiate narratives about group origins and migrations and inter-group relationships in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Detailed oral traditions told by communities speaking the Gadsup and Agarabi languages recount histories of movement, conflict and trade in the Arona or Yonki Valley and its surrounds. These narratives have guided field surveys of former settlements and surface collections of archaeological ceramics at a number of sites across the Arona Valley. Detailed analyses of the resulting ceramic collections provide an opportunity to establish how archaeological science and oral traditions can collaborate in the reconstruction of micro-histories. Analysis of decoration, surface characteristics and clay composition for both diagnostic and non-diagnostic sherds allows for certain distinctions to be drawn between Agarabi pottery produced in the Arona Valley and Adzera pottery traded in from the neighbouring lowland Markham Valley. This preliminary characterisation is largely supported by differences in elemental signature identified through LA-ICPMS, as well as petrography and p-XRF. The marked differences in the distribution across sites of Agarabi and Adzera wares essentially confirm the oral traditions of patterns of migration and exchange in the pre-colonial past.

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Data availability

Data and code are available at Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8339672, https://zenodo.org/records/8339672).

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the central importance and vital contribution to this paper of the Agarabi and Gadsup communities of the Arona Valley. Research, excavation and export permits were obtained from the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies and the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery. We also acknowledge the generous and collegial contributions to our understanding of Eastern Highlands pottery by Pamela Swadling, Virginia Watson, Patricia May, Lorna Luff, Jean Goddard and Darlene Bee.

Funding

Fieldwork in 1987 was funded by ELCOM PNG and the Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Kristine Hardy & Mathieu Leclerc

  2. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, School of Culture History and Language, College of Asia and Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Mathieu Leclerc

  3. School of Culture History and Language, College of Asia and Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Chris Ballard

  4. Research School of Earth Sciences, College of Science, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Brett Knowles

  5. Research School of Physics, College of Science, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Ulrike Troitzsch

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Contributions

Conceptualization: Chris Ballard; methodology: Kristine Hardy, Mathieu Leclerc; sherd collection: Chris Ballard; sherd characterisation: Kristine Hardy; p-XRF data collection: Kristine Hardy; analysis: Kristine Hardy; LA-ICPMS data collection: Brett Knowles, Kristine Hardy, Mathieu Leclerc; XRD data collection: Ulrike Troitzsch; writing – original draft preparation: Kristine Hardy; writing – review and editing: Mathieu Leclerc, Chris Ballard.

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Correspondence to Kristine Hardy.

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Hardy, K., Leclerc, M., Ballard, C. et al. Reconstructing settlement histories in the Papua New Guinea Highlands through ceramic analysis and oral traditions. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 16, 12 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01919-w

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