Diving for pottery: Lapita in Jacquinot Bay, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea

[Extract] Although the Bismarck Archipelago is well known for Lapita archaeology, within New Britain research has focussed on only a few selected areas: the north eastern tip of East New Britain including the offshore islands of Watom (Anson et al. 2005) and the Duke of Yorks (White 2007); the Willaumez Peninsula and surrounds (Specht and Summerhayes 2007, Specht and Torrence 2007 a and b); the coast west of the Willaumez Peninsula along the Kove/Kombe coastline (Lilley 1991); and the south west coast from the Arawe Islands to Kandrian (see Summerhayes 2000 for an overview). These regions have provided a vast quantity of archaeological data reflecting human behaviour, including pre-Lapita, Lapita and post-Lapita. One area, however, that has seen relatively little attention is the Pomio District, the south coast of East New Britain. Apart from a reconnaissance expedition by Specht over 40 years ago, little archaeological research has been undertaken in the Pomio District and relatively few archaeological sites have been recorded for the region. In this short paper we introduce a new Lapita site from Jacquinot Bay