Ceramics and prehistoric exchange in the Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

This study explores the ceramic sequence of the Admiralty Islands (Manus Province, Papua New Guinea) between 2000 BP and the present, covering both post-Lapita and Late prehistoric periods in Island Melanesia. In the Admiralties, information on these periods comes mainly from surface collections with no reliable chronology. In pursuing the goal of establishing a ceramic sequence for the Admiralties, the current study utilises the potential of attributes, attribute combinations and xeroradiography to cover several aspects of ceramic characterization. Through such studies, a ceramic sequence has been established for the Admiralties for the first time. This sequence is divided into four main periods:(i) Lapita,(ii) Early post-Lapita,(iii) Late post-Lapita and (iv) Late prehistoric periods, which have been compared with the rest of Island Melanesia to address wider questions of Ceramic regional traditions and exchange through time. The strength of this sequence is that the methods used are inexpensive and all the attributes are standard. This means that future researchers in Melanesia can easily seriate their surface ceramic collections to place them within the sequence. Ceramics from sites with unreliable dates, ofte1n the case in the Admiralties and elsewhere, can be cross-dated using this sequence. In dealing with the wider questions of regional ceramic traditions, the thesis confirms the existence of a widely spread ceramic tradition of incised and applied pottery, and clarifies the position of regional variants like Mangaasi within this tradition. This represents an important contribution to Pacific archaeology given the long-standing confusion over the status of incised and applied pottery in the region's prehistory. Show more