Subject
Rock art, stencils, prehistoric trade, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea, [SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory

Domains
Archéologie, Sciences Sociales, Sciences humaines

Description

International audience Since 1909, patrol officers, anthropologists and archaeologists have identified evidence of a pre-contact trading network linking New Guinea with the Torres Strait. Current research in the Lower Sepik River Basin reported various ethnographic descriptions relating to cultural material objects stenciled on various rock art sites in Auwim, Upper Karawari-Arafundi region, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea (PNG). In addition to the rock art, the broader area has one of the most environmentally intact freshwater basins with lowland rainforests in Melanesia, and is famous for its architectural carvings and spirit houses. This paper reports new research that articulates local ethnographic knowledge about rock art with the art-work itself. The rock art panels contain a wide range of stencils primarily consisting of hands but, importantly, also several objects. One such object is the kina shell. The kina shell stencils are, among other things, indicative of the remarkable distance over which the shells were traded and traditionally used. The Auwim case study is important because it is one of the relatively few sites across PNG for which we still have ethnography of rock art and therefore provides us with important insight into the past-present rock art practices, and concurrently notions of cultural continuity.

Keywords

Language
English (en-GB)

Creators
Tsang, Roxanne, , Pleiber, William, Kariwiga, J., Plutniak, Sébastien, Forestier, Hubert, Taçon, Paul S.C, Ricaut, Francois-Xavier, Leavesley, Matthew

Contributors
Griffith University [Brisbane], University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (UT2J), Travaux et recherches archéologiques sur les cultures, les espaces et les sociétés (TRACES) ; École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (UT2J)-Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Histoire naturelle de l'Homme préhistorique (HNHP) ; Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Université de Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Evolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB) ; Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

Sources
ISSN: 1556-4894, EISSN: 1556-1828, Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02915654, Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, Taylor & Francis, 2020, ⟨10.1080/15564894.2020.1834472⟩

Relation
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1080/15564894.2020.1834472

Coverage
Melanesia

Name of newspaper