Barker, Bryce, Lamb, Lara, Beni, Teppsy, Leavesley, Matthew, Manne, Tiina, and Aubert, Maxime (2025) Marine shell from Walufeni Cave and the origins of the Kasua: Implications for Late Holocene socio-cultural interaction on the Great Papuan Plateau, Papua New Guinea. Australian Archaeology, 91 (2). pp. 185-196.

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Abstract

This paper presents new radiocarbon dates for the presence of marine shell at Walufeni Cave, dating from 3,250 cal BP. Walufeni Cave is located at the eastern end of the Great Papuan Plateau, Papua New Guinea, approximately 200 km in a straight line from the southern coast, thus the presence of marine shell here has significant implications for understanding changes in regional social dynamics during the Late Holocene. It is posited that the sudden appearance of marine shell at this time is linked to the spread of Austronesian influences along the southern coast of Papua New Guinea and Torres Strait—characterised by McNiven as the Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere (CSCIS). Although largely modelled as a maritime system, we argue here that the CSCIS is linked to the movement of people and riverine exchange systems extending far into the interior.

Item ID:	89386
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	0312-2417
Keywords:	marine shell; Late Holocene; New Guinea; sociocultural interaction
Copyright Information:	© 2025 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.
Funders:	Australian Research Council
Projects and Grants:	ARC Discovery Project (DP190100159)
Date Deposited:	03 Nov 2025 06:53
FoR Codes:	45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4513 Pacific Peoples culture, language and history > 451301 Archaeology of New Guinea and Pacific Islands (excl. New Zealand) @ 70% 43 HISTORY, HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 4301 Archaeology > 430101 Archaeological science @ 30%
SEO Codes:	21 INDIGENOUS > 2112 Pacific Peoples heritage and culture > 211201 Conserving Pacific Peoples heritage and culture @ 70% 13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1307 Understanding past societies > 130799 Understanding past societies not elsewhere classified @ 30%
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