Between the mountain and the plain: prehistoric settlement and environment in the Kaironk Valley

Wanlek is a site at 1675 m altitude in the upper Kaironk valley, near Simbai in the Madang District in Papua New Guinea. It is intermediate between the mountains and the plain in the en­ vironmental sense, physically closer to the lowlands than the Central Highlands and ojfering its in­ habitants much more direct access to lowlands resources. It is also intermediate in respect to trade rind communication, having trade contacts with both the lowlands and the Highlands. Wanlek is a notable archaeological site in its evidence of an early hunting and collecting settlement, including post holes dating to between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago. More recently, between about 55oc and 3uoo years ago, Wanlek was a settlement of intensive cultivators, who were possibl; recultivating grassland resultingfrom earlierforest clearance by swidden cultivators. They brought a new stone technology to the valley, including sophisticated polished axes and woodcarving chisels, drill points, and tanged cultivating tools. Other stone tanged cultivating tools have so far been found only in the Wahgi valley, the Eastern Highlands District, and the Trobriand Islands, but these tools are similar to cultivating implements of wood, bone and turtle shell used throughout the Pacific. On the basis oftheir stone technology and aJew distinctive trade sherds ofred slipped and sand tempered pottery, it is suggested that this community at Wanlek reflects contact with early Austronesian speaking communities on the northern coast.Chapter