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International audience; Hand stencils directly represent modern humans in landscape settings around the world. Yet their social and cultural contexts are often overlooked due to the lack of ethnography associated with the artwork. This paper explores the hand stencils from Kundumbue and Pundimbung rock art sites, situated in the traditional boundaries of the Auwim people in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. Combining archaeological rock art analysis with ethnographic knowledge, we demonstrate that the hand stencils are a priority in each clan's place-making practices, around which they construct the community's social narratives. Rock shelters and their rock art also show a form of communal history that is evoked through their production in contemporary settings, in addition to having been a form of esoteric magic in the past. We conclude that hand stencils can have multiple meanings over time and across space as a widespread cultural marker. However, aspects of the identities of individuals, groups and communities who created the now static hand imagery, remain in place.

The introduction of new animals into hunter-gatherer societies produces a variety of cultural responses. This article explores the role of rock art in western Arnhem Land, Australia, in helping to mediate contact-period changes in Indigenous society in the nineteenth century. The authors explore etic and emic perspectives on the ‘re-emergence’ of water buffalo into Aboriginal cultural life. Merging archaeological analysis, rock art and ethnographic accounts, the article demonstrates how such artworks were used as a tool for maintaining order in times of dramatic social change. The results of this research have significant implications for understanding how cultural groups and individuals worldwide used rock art during periods of upheaval.

In Australia, recent climate change has resulted in prolonged droughts, massive devastating bushfires, extreme flooding, and more frequent and intense cyclones, all of which affect archaeological a...

International audience; Since 1909, patrol officers, anthropologists and archaeologists have identified evidence of a pre-contact trading network linking New Guinea with the Torres Strait. Current research in the Lower Sepik River Basin reported various ethnographic descriptions relating to cultural material objects stenciled on various rock art sites in Auwim, Upper Karawari-Arafundi region, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea (PNG). In addition to the rock art, the broader area has one of the most environmentally intact freshwater basins with lowland rainforests in Melanesia, and is famous for its architectural carvings and spirit houses. This paper reports new research that articulates local ethnographic knowledge about rock art with the art-work itself. The rock art panels contain a wide range of stencils primarily consisting of hands but, importantly, also several objects. One such object is the kina shell. The kina shell stencils are, among other things, indicative of the remarkable distance over which the shells were traded and traditionally used. The Auwim case study is important because it is one of the relatively few sites across PNG for which we still have ethnography of rock art and therefore provides us with important insight into the past-present rock art practices, and concurrently notions of cultural continuity.

Cassowaries (Casuarius) are one of the largest indigenous animal species of New Guinea. Researchers have long been trying to understand their local socio-cultural significance. Here we present new results from interviews recorded in 2018 on ethnography associated with bone daggers, a material culture ornament and tool carved from the cassowary's tibiotarsus. We present a ‘storied notion’—a contemporary narrative from oral history of why cassowary is not simply a bird, and briefly describe cassowary bone ornamentation in Auwim, East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. By exploring the material history of Casuarius through a ‘storied notion’ approach, we reveal that cassowary bone daggers in rock art are narrative ideas of the species from its landscape to ornamentation and through to people's cosmological beliefs surrounding Casuarius. We argue that the cassowary bone dagger stencil can be seen as part of the life history of this animal.

The settlement of Sahul, the lost continent of Oceania, remains one of the most ancient and debated human migrations. Modern New Guineans inherited a unique genetic diversity tracing back 50,000 years, and yet there is currently no model reconstructing their past population dynamics. We generated 58 new whole-genome sequences from Papua New Guinea, filling geographical gaps in previous sampling, specifically to address alternative scenarios of the initial migration to Sahul and the settlement of New Guinea. Here, we present the first genomic models for the settlement of northeast Sahul considering one or two migrations from Wallacea. Both models fit our data set, reinforcing the idea that ancestral groups to New Guinean and Indigenous Australians split early, potentially during their migration in Wallacea where the northern route could have been favored. The earliest period of human presence in Sahul was an era of interactions and gene flow between related but already differentiated groups, from whom all modern New Guineans, Bismarck islanders, and Indigenous Australians descend. The settlement of New Guinea was probably initiated from its southeast region, where the oldest archaeological sites have been found. This was followed by two migrations into the south and north lowlands that ultimately reached the west and east highlands. We also identify ancient gene flows between populations in New Guinea, Australia, East Indonesia, and the Bismarck Archipelago, emphasizing the fact that the anthropological landscape during the early period of Sahul settlement was highly dynamic rather than the traditional view of extensive isolation.

Accounts of New Guinea’s recent past are replete with both archaeological and ethnographic evidence of trade that indirectly connect virtually the entire country from coast to highland. One consequence has been a bias towards central places (e.g. Mailu Island) and/or large-scale production villages (e.g. of the Port Moresby region) as origin locations for distributed goods. Inversely, there has also been attention paid to distant, recipient points in the landscape (e.g. Gulf of Papua lowlands) where incoming traders turn back home to their originating villages. Less attention has been given to those extreme edges where separate networks indirectly connect. Here we present new evidence from Hood Bay on the south coast of PNG, a region that lies at a crossroads between the west-sailing Motu hiri and eastern Mailu Island ceramicists and seafaring traders. By being on the margins of each, Hood Bay is geographically well positioned to investigate changing inter-regional seafaring networks along a broad coastal expanse. We present initial results from excavations at the Agila village site, Hood Bay, where a changing incidence of western Motu and Mailu ceramics is evident. The results signal that Hood Bay villagers reorganised alliances and access to commodities and influence, depending on the prevailing conditions beyond their immediate western and eastern horizons.

Betel nut is the fruit of Areca palm, growing in Papua New Guinea. Mixed with limestone and stick mustard, arecoline and guvacoline, which are present in betel nut, are hydrolyzed into arecaidine and guvacine, respectively. As part of the study on dietary habits of Papuans residents, our laboratory was asked to analyze the four alkaloids in hair to document long-term exposure. Hair samples were collected from 19 adult subjects (males = 11; females = 8), by some of the authors, and were sent to the laboratory for analysis. The four alkaloids have very similar chemical structures. In order to accurately identify the drugs, two methods were developed. First, the compounds were identified using an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography system coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Then, they were quantified by an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography system coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. After decontamination with dichloromethane, hair samples were cut into very small segments and 20 mg were incubated in methanol for 2 h 30 min in an ultrasound bath. After cooling, the methanol was evaporated to dryness in presence of 20-μL octanol to prevent volatilization. Nicotine-d4 was used as an internal standard. Linearity was observed for concentrations ranging from the limit of quantification to 20 ng/mg for arecoline, arecaidine, guvacine and guvacoline. Measured concentrations were in the range 60 pg/mg to 18 ng/mg for arecoline (n = 19), 14 pg/mg to 2.5 ng/mg for guvacoline (n = 11), 63 pg/mg to 3.8 ng/mg for arecaidine (n = 11) and 100 pg/mg to 3.2 ng/mg for guvacine (n = 6). There was no correlation between concentrations of arecoline and arecaidine (ratio from 0.01 to 0.18) and guvacoline and guvacine (ratio from 0.06 to 3.50). However, the identification of these substances in hair is a good marker of consumption of betel nut and allows us to document a local practice that remains difficult to evaluate just by questioning.

Objective Simultaneous identification and quantification of 4 betel nut alkaloids (arecoline, arecaidine, guvacoline and guvacine), in the hair of papuans abusers. Background Betel nut or areca nut, also known as “buai” in Papua New Guinea is the fruit of Areca catechu palm. This nut is highly consumed by the local population and represents a large part of the internal commercial activity of the island. The betel nut is mixed with lime powder made of shell or coral and stick mustard, which is a kind of bean also called “daka”. This mixture, of a typical red color, is chewed all along the day and finally spat in the street by the residents. Two major compounds are presents in betel nut: arecoline and guvacoline. In presence of lime (alkaline conditions), these alkaloids are hydrolyzed into arecaidine and guvacine respectively. These 4 substances have stimulating, anorectic and mildly euphoric effects. Some side effects are associated with this addiction, and the use of betel nut is the principal cause of mouth and esophagus cancer in Papua New Guinea. As part of the study on dietary habits, phenotypic and genetic diversity of papuans residents, our laboratory was asked to analyze the active substances in hair to document exposure. Hair samples were collected from 19 adult subjects (males = 11; females = 8) by some of the authors and sent to the laboratory for analysis. Method The 4 alkaloids of betel nut have very similar chemical structures. In order to identify accurately the drugs, two methods were developed. First, the compounds were identified using an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography system coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Waters XEVO® G2-XS qTof). Then, they were quantified by an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography system coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (Waters XEVO® TQD). Hair samples were twice decontaminated with dichloromethane and cut into very small segments using scissors. Given the curvy nature of all the specimens, there was no attempt to do segmentation. Then, 20 mg were incubated in methanol during 2 h 30 in an ultrasound bath. After cooling, the methanol was evaporated to dryness in presence of 20 μL octanol to prevent volatilization. Results Linearity was observed for concentration ranging from LOQ to 20 ng/mg with a correlation coefficient R2 of 0.9994, 0.9999, 0.9999 and 0.9981 for arecoline, arecaidine, guvacine and guvacoline respectively. Measured concentrations were in the range: 60 pg/mg to 18 ng/mg for arecoline (n = 19), 14 pg/mg to 2.5 ng/mg for guvacoline (n = 11), 63 pg/mg to 3.8 ng/mg for arecaidine (n = 11) and 100 pg/mg to 3.2 ng/mg for guvacine (n = 6). Conclusion There was no correlation between concentrations of arecoline and arecaidine (ratio arecaidine/arecoline from 0.01 to 0.18) and guvacoline and guvacine (ratio guvacine/guvacoline from 0.06 to 3.50). However, the identification of these substances in hair is a good marker of consumption of betel nut, and allows to document a local practice which remains difficult to evaluate just by questioning.