Pre‐Lapita decorated wood from Apalo, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

AbstractIn 1989–1990, part of a wooden artefact with an incised criss‐cross design was recovered from the pre‐Lapita pottery level of the U‐L‐T area of the Apalo site in the Arawe Islands of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. The artefact was made from a Ficus tree species, and has been dated by AMS to 4043–3848 calBP (95.4%). This makes it the oldest directly dated ornamented object in the New Guinea region, though zoomorphic stone figurines and pestles and decorated stone mortars of the region are probably of similar antiquity. The artefact adds to the growing body of information about people in the Papua New Guinea Islands prior to the appearance of Lapita pottery, though the simplicity of the design and its widespread distribution in time and space caution against seeing it as a precursor to the Lapita design system. The nature of the original artefact is uncertain.