Notes & News

Abstract

This note summarizes the results of four seasons of fieldwork carried out in the Gulf Pmvince, Papua New Guinea (see map below), between 1979 and 1983. David Frankel, Department of Archaeology, LA Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia, joins with Ron Vandemal, Museum of Victoria, 285 Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, to share some of these results with us. This note summarizes the results of four seasons of fieldwork carried out in the Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea (FIG. I ) , between 1979 and 1983. Our primary aim, capitalizing on existing interests within the then Division of Prehistory at La Trobe University (e.g. Oram, 1982; Vanderwal, 1978) was to investigate the prehistory and nature of hiri trade-an exchange network involving pottery made by Motu-speaking peoples of the Port Moresby district and sago and canoe-hulls from the Papuan Gulf (Dutton, 1982; Allen, 1977). An important focus of study was the regional pottery sequences of the Papuan coast (Bulmer, 1979). During the course of our research other parallel interests were developed in prehistoric and modern subsistence economies, ethnozoology, material culture, and the use of oral data in documenting the recent prehistory of Papua New Guinea (cf. Denoon & Snowden n.d.; Majnep & Bulmer, 1977; Crawford, 1982; Denoon &Lacey, 1981). An initial exploratory visit to the Gulf was undertaken in January 1979 by Frankel, accompanied by Nigel Oram, in order to locate areas of archaeological potential, preparatory to our application to the