Obsidian from the Jacquinot Bay area, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea.
Abstract
The paper describes the analysis by portable XRF (pXRF) of 44 pieces of obsidian from six archaeological sites around Jacquinot Bay in the Pomio District of East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. One piece is possibly from a middle Lapita pottery context, but the remainder are undated but almost certainly post-Lapita in age. The pXRF analysis attributes all pieces to New Britain sources: 41 from Mopir and 3 from Willaumez Peninsula. The dominance of the Mopir source supports a relatively late date for the obsidian’s arrival in the Jacquinot Bay area. When considered in relation to a stemmed obsidian tool from Pakia village inland to the north of Jacquinot Bay, the results suggest that future work in this region area may feed into wider discussions on the control of resources and the social function of obsidian in the Papua New Guinea island provinces