Emergence of a Neolithic in highland New Guinea by 5000 to 4000 years ago

Authors

Ben Shaw
Judith Field
Glenn Summerhayes
Simon Coxe
Adelle Coster
Anne Ford
Jemina Haro
Henry Arifeae
Emily Hull
Geraldine Jacobsen
Richard Fullagar, University of WollongongFollow
Elspeth H. Hayes, University of WollongongFollow
Lisa Kealhofer

RIS ID

142454

Publication Details

Shaw, B., Field, J., Summerhayes, G., Coxe, S., Coster, A., Ford, A., Haro, J., Arifeae, H., Hull, E., Jacobsen, G., Fullagar, R., Hayes, E. & Kealhofer, L. (2020). Emergence of a Neolithic in highland New Guinea by 5000 to 4000 years ago. Science Advances, 6 (13),

Abstract

Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved. The emergence of agriculture was one of the most notable behavioral transformations in human history, driving innovations in technologies and settlement globally, referred to as the Neolithic. Wetland agriculture originated in the New Guinea highlands during the mid-Holocene (8000 to 4000 years ago), yet it is unclear if there was associated behavioral change. Here, we report the earliest figurative stone carving and formally manufactured pestles in Oceania, dating to 5050 to 4200 years ago. These discoveries, at the highland site of Waim, occur with the earliest planilateral axe-adzes in New Guinea, the first evidence for fibercraft, and interisland obsidian transfer. The combination of symbolic social systems, complex technologies, and highland agricultural intensification supports an independent emergence of a Neolithic ~1000 years before the arrival of Neolithic migrants (Lapita) from Southeast Asia.