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This article presents archaeological data critical to our understanding of the pre-colonial past along the northeast coast of New Guinea. Two archaeological sites from coastal and offshore Madang, Papua New Guinea, were excavated to establish the timing of colonization by Bel (Austronesian) speakers, and the subsequent emergence of their trade and exchange networks along the coast leading up to ethnographic accounts. These sites include Nunguri on Bilbil Island, formerly the center of the expansive Madang (Bilbil) pottery exchange network, and Tilu, Malmal village, a pottery consumption area along the coast. Both excavations suggest that initial occupation at these sites by the Bel-speaking groups occurred very recently in the last millennium before present (c. 550-650 cal BP), which is broadly in line with oral history and linguistic evidence. From the start, this occupation involved local red-slipped pottery production and distribution, the exchange of obsidian and sedimentary lithics, and the consumption of nearshore marine resources along with key domesticated animals. In-depth descriptions of these investigations and the archaeological material are presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe exchange of specialized items and the social connections those exchanges engender play a fundamental role in the trajectories of societal relations. Processual archaeologists developed a core–periphery model to understand how these exchange relations work. The model evoked complex societal “cores” and “peripheries” at societal edges where exchanges with other cultures take place. The rigidity of core–periphery modeling led to the emergence of more nuanced network analyses to explain the qualitative as well as quantitative dimensions of cultural exchange. Yet contemporary models still focus on the agency of societal cores as central places. The agency and experiences of communities negotiating connections between exchange networks have gained little attention. In this study, we address this knowledge gap by exploring how the people of Hood Bay on Papua New Guinea’s south coast negotiated their position between the famed Motu hiri and Mailu seafaring exchange networks. Drawing on archaeological, ethnographic, and historical data, we examine how Hood Bay communities maintained and altered dynamic regional exchange associations through time. By highlighting the agency of communities living between exchange networks, this study contributes to understandings of the complex negotiation and organizing of exchange relations between cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]