Thirty years after P. Gorecki and D.S. Giellieson in Papua New Guinea: New data on the Holocene settlement of East Sepik, upper Karawari-Arafundi region - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2019

Thirty years after P. Gorecki and D.S. Giellieson in Papua New Guinea: New data on the Holocene settlement of East Sepik, upper Karawari-Arafundi region

Résumé

In 2017-2018 the French Prehistoric Mission in Papua New Guinea, co-directed by F.-X. Ricaut and M. Leavesley, undertook archaeological surveys and excavations in the Paimbumkanja (PBK) rock shelter located in the upper Karawari-Arafundi region of East Sepik. Prehistoric research in the lowlands is scarce and dates back to the pioneer work of P. Gorecki and D.S. Giellieson in the late 1980s in the neighbouring valley of Jimi-Yuat. Our research at PBK uncovered an archaeological sequence dating back to the late Holocene between 2956 and 1 00 years Cal BP (1006 BC to 650 AD). Two stratigraphic units (SU1 and SU2) contained lithic industries but no faunal remains, and were separated by a layer rich in blocks. Raw material used for knapping were mainly local: cobble quartz and quartzite from the puddingstone forming the awning of the shelter, with some rare pieces of flint, jasper and volcanic rocks. The modalities of the knapping process follow a “chaîne opératoire” associating debitage and shaping. Debitage is better represented; the objective was to produce artifacts preferentially narrow and elongated, resembling blades or small blades with or without utilized flake. Knapping on pebbles is relatively frequent with some macro-tools (e.g. choppers). A specific bifacial tool (chisel) made in exogenous volcanic rock with a transversal bevel was found. Human occupation in the PBK rock shelter is included in the recent Holocene chrono-sequence proposed in 1989 by P. Gorecki and D.S. Giellieson. This confirms flake production associated to macro-tools from 3000 years BP in the Sepik lowlands.
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Dates et versions

hal-02273496 , version 1 (29-08-2019)

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  • HAL Id : hal-02273496 , version 1

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Hubert Forestier, Jason Kariwiga, Henry Baills, Roxanne ; Tsang, Simon Puaud, et al.. Thirty years after P. Gorecki and D.S. Giellieson in Papua New Guinea: New data on the Holocene settlement of East Sepik, upper Karawari-Arafundi region. Proceedings Volume of the 3rd Seameo-Spafa International Conference on Southeastasian Archaeology. Session “Current research on lithic industry in Southeast Asia from early Pleistocene to early Holocene”, Jun 2019, Bangkok, Thailand. ⟨hal-02273496⟩
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