Taim bilong bipo : investigations towards a prehistory of the Papua-New Guinea Highlands

Abstract

Europeans first entered the Central Highlands of Australian New Guinea in the 1930’s, but access to this area has been reasonably easy only since World War II. In this period a number of important anthropological studies have been made. The prehistoric archaeology of the region remained unknown until Mrs S. Bulmer in 1959-60 surveyed the area from Mt Hagen to Chuave and carried out excavations at the rockshelters of kiowa (Chuava) and Yuku (Baiyer River). She also found open sites in the form of house depressions, burials, ditches, salt and axe-stone sources. The major results of her work were published late in 1964, while a definitive excavation report become available in her M.A. thesis in 1967. Mrs. Bulmer’s work and the prehistory she and Dr R. Bulmer have written on the basis of it have been of conciderable significance in the last few years. Show more