Abstract
Palynological investigations in the Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea, begun in the 1960s by Donald Walker and his students at the Australian National University, have been described as providing striking pollen evidence of early forest clearance, speaking on a tropical or even a world scale. The investigations on which the history of New Guinea agriculture has been constructed took place at 1550 m elevation. In the course of the discussion Golson drew on new evidence from Kelela Swamp at 1420 m elevation on the floor of the Baliem Valley in West Papua. There are some indications that the forests of highland New Guinea may be slow to recover after disturbance, as a result, among other things, of lowered temperatures and diminished amounts of photosynthetically active radiation, which decrease stature, biomass and productivity. In the 1970s archaeology was fairly new on the New Guinea scene, having only arrived with the work of Susan Bulmer in the Papua New Guinea Highlands.
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