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A renewed archaeological and archaeobotanical assessment of house sites at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea
Author(s) -
LEWIS TARA,
DENHAM TIM,
GOLSON JACK
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
archaeology in oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1834-4453
pISSN - 0728-4896
DOI - 10.1002/arco.5113
Subject(s) - archaeology , swamp , geography , genus , new guinea , excavation , settlement (finance) , wetland , ecology , biology , history , ethnology , world wide web , computer science , payment
House sites located on the wetland margin at Kuk Swamp in the Upper Wahgi Valley of Papua New Guinea were excavated in 1972 and 1973. Macrobotanical remains collected during excavation of domestic contexts were collected and subject to preliminary identification. Renewed macrobotanical analysis of these remains provides a more reliable foundation for their taxonomic identification to species or genus level. Plant remains include sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) and probable sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) . Direct accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating of macrobotanical remains provides a reliable basis for determining the antiquity of the house sites and differentiates at least two periods of settlement.