Kerby, Georgia, Ford, Anne, Summerhayes, Glenn, Leavesley, Matthew, and Palin, Michael J. (2022) Fit for purpose: investigating adaptations in late Pleistocene lithic technology to an island environment at Buang Merabak, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. World Archaeology, 54 (2). pp. 317-337.

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Abstract

The occupation of Buang Merabak, a cave located on the island of New Ireland, by 42,000 years ago demonstrates that the colonisation of the Bismarck Archipelago occurred soon after that of Sahul. This provides the opportunity to consider the adaptation of small groups of people to a depauperate island environment. An analysis of a lithic assemblage from Buang Merabak was used to consider how technological organisation reflects changing patterns of site use and subsistence strategies from the late Pleistocene through to the early Holocene. A strategy of small simple flake technology was identified, which would have allowed site occupants flexibility in the face of fluctuating patterns of faunal resource use. During the late Pleistocene, a broad range of local lithic materials were used expediently. Gradual change occurred in the early Holocene to a smaller variety of materials with dominant use of local chert flakes and conservation of specific volcanic materials.

Item ID:	81337
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1470-1375
Keywords:	Buang Merabak, lithic technology, islands, Bismarck Archipelago, adaptation, technological organisation
Copyright Information:	© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Date Deposited:	11 Dec 2023 01:09
FoR Codes:	45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4513 Pacific Peoples culture, language and history > 451301 Archaeology of New Guinea and Pacific Islands (excl. New Zealand) @ 100%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1307 Understanding past societies > 130799 Understanding past societies not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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