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The materiality of ritual performance is a growing focus for archaeologists. In Europe, collective ritual performance is expected to be highly structured and to leave behind a loud archaeological signature. In Australia and Papua New Guinea, ritual is highly structured; however, material signatures for performance are not always apparent, with ritual frequently bound up in the surrounding natural and cultural landscape. One way of assessing long-term ritual in this context is by using archaeology to historicize ethno-historical and ethnographic accounts. Examples of this in the Torres Strait region, islands between Papua New Guinea and mainland Australia, suggest that ritual activities were materially inscribed at kod sites (ceremonial men's meeting places) through distribution of clan fireplaces, mounds of stone/bone and shell. This paper examines the structure of Torres Strait ritual for a site ethnographically reputed to be the ancestral kod of the Mabuyag Islanders. Intra-site partitioning of ritual performance is interpreted using ethnography, rock art and the divergent distribution of surface and sub-surface materials (including microscopic analysis of dugong bone and lithic material) across the site. Finally, it discusses the materiality of ritual at a boundary zone between mainland Australia and Papua New Guinea and the extent to which archaeology provides evidence for Islander negotiation through ceremony of external incursions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Goemu village site on Mabuyag features one of the largest midden deposits recorded in Torres Strait. Following pioneering mapping and excavations of the site by archaeologists from University College London (UCL) in 1985, we document in detail results of follow-up excavations undertaken at two linear mounded midden deposits by archaeologists from Monash University in 2005. Comprehensive radiocarbon dating indicates Square A mound formed c.350-450 cal BP while Square B mound formed c.950- 1,000 cal BP. Both mounds reveal a subsistence focus on dugong and turtle hunting supplemented by fishing and shellfishing from adjacent intertidal reef flats and mangrove forests. Lower densities of dugong bone in Square A probably reflect concomitant deposition of dugong bones in specialised ritual bone mounds. Inclusion of dog teeth, teeth extracted from children post-mortem and high density surface concentrations of bottle glass fragments in Square B indicate ritualised deposition before and after European contact. Other material culture includes pearl shell scrapers and ground clam shell adornments. Charcoal underlying midden deposits suggests pre-village landscape firing while land snails within midden deposits suggest shade trees once occurred across the now fire-induced, anthropogenic grasslands of Goemu. Intensified use of Goemu within the past 500 years parallels intensified village occupation on nearby Pulu islet, thus revealing the complementary social history of settlement sites across Goemulgaw territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]