Archaeology of the Gulf Province Lowlands, Papua New Guinea

Before the early 1900s, the peoples of the Gulf Province (PNG) participated in one of the world's truly remarkable Indigenous trade networks. From 400km to the east, annual sailing fleets typically brought 20,000 pots in exchange for 500 tons of locally produced sago. But the swampy lowlands on which the sago producers lived were devoid of stone, and stone tools were required to enable the mass production of sago; stone was thus imported through inland trade routes. Here we explore the archaeology of pottery-sago-stone artefact trade in the Kikori region, promising to resolve long-standing questions of Gulf Province cultural history. It represents a rare opportunity to study the history of a long-distance Melanesian maritime trade network.