Archaeology in Oceania articles from October 2003

Archaeology in Oceania archives from October 2003

Jack Golson and the investigation of prehistoric agriculture in Highland New Guinea: recent work and future prospects.
October 1, 2003... This collection of papers celebrates Jack Golson's influence on the investigation of prehistoric agriculture in the mountainous interior of New Guinea. The breadth of Golson's interests and his remarkable intellectual generosity have stimulated...

Writing (pre)history: narrative and archaeological explanation in the New Guinea Highlands.
October 1, 2003... Abstract The role of narrative in explanation has received considerable attention in most of the disciplines concerned with questions of historical process, including history, geology, psychoanalysis and palaeo-anthropology....

The emergence of an agricultural landscape in the highlands of New Guinea.
October 1, 2003... Abstract That pollen and sedimentological evidence can make a significant contribution to our understanding of the nature and antiquity of agricultural development in the highlands of New Guinea has long been recognised and promoted by...

Archaeological evidence for mid-Holocene agriculture in the interior of Papua New Guinea: a critical review.
October 1, 2003... Abstract Claims for the early and independent origins of agriculture in New Guinea partially rest on the archaeological evidence for mid-Holocene drainage and land use at five sites in the interior. The five sites are Kuk, Kana, Mugumamp...

In the shadows of Kuk: evidence for prehistoric agriculture at Kana, Wahgi Valley, Papua New Guinea.
October 1, 2003... Abstract Archaeological survey with limited excavation at the Kana site revealed evidence of prehistoric agricultural practices in the form of ditches and other cut features on an abandoned river terrace of the Minj River. Based on the...

Identification of Benincasa hispida (wax gourd) from the Kana archaeological site, Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.
October 1, 2003... Abstract Rind and seeds of a gourd discovered at the Kana site in Papua New Guinea are identified as remains of Benincasa hispida. The origins and dispersal of this species are discussed, with reference to the bottle gourd, Lagenaria...

Taro planthoppers (Tarophagus spp.) in Australia and the origins of taro (Colocasia esculenta) in Oceania.
October 1, 2003... Abstract Taro planthoppers (Tarophagus spp.) may be associated exclusively or primarily with taro (Colocasia esculenta), and the geographical distribution of T. proserpina provides circumstantial evidence that taro is native to the Sahul...

Fratricide and inequality: things fall apart in eastern New Guinea.
October 1, 2003... Abstract This paper contrasts models of increasing social integration in the central valleys of the New Guinea highlands advanced by Watson, Modjeska and Golson with that of a society constructed entirely differently at the eastern end of...

Lapita: a view from the East.(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... By Simon Best. New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph 24, Auckland, 2002. ISBN 0-9597915-7-4/ISSN 0111-5715. Pp. 113. NZD45 + postage. Simon Best has packed a great deal into his slim volume. It is written in the terse, clipped...

An archaeology of West Polynesian prehistory.(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... By Anita Smith. Terra Australis 18, 2002. Pandanus Books, Australian National University, Canberra. ISBN 1 74076 019 0. Pp. 229. AUD65. In this volume Anita Smith re-examines the dominant paradigm of the early archaeology of West...

Pacific Landscapes: archaeological approaches.(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... Edited by Thegn N. Ladefoged and Michael W. Graves. Easter Island Foundation, Los Osos, CA, 2002. ISBN 1-880636-20-4 (paper). Pp. 1-274. USD26. At a recent public lecture I attended a doyen of British landscape archaeology, who perhaps...

Lapita and its transformations in Near Oceania: archaeological excavations in the Mussau Islands, Papua New Guinea, 1985-88. Volume 1: Introductions, excavations, chronology.(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... By P. V. Kirch. Archaeological Research Facility, University of California Berkeley, Contribution No. 59, 2001. ISBN 1-882744-11-X. Pp. xx + 246. USD29.95 + postage. A constant complaint by most archaeologists is that their colleagues...

Modelling hunter-gatherer settlement patterns: an Australian case study.(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... By M. Pickering, BAR International Series 1103, 2003. ISBN 1 84171 481 X. Pp.240. UKP 35. This BAR publication of Michael Pickering's PhD is a study of settlement and subsistence in an inland region of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Its focus is...