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Genetic and sociological fieldwork along the Arafundi River (East Sepik, Papua New Guinea)

“Singsing” dancers in Awim village, with the Esamkanja cliff in the background (Photo: F.-X. Ricaut).

From the 17th to the 24th of June 2019, a team of six people undertook the 3rd fieldwork of the Papuan Past Project in the Arafundi region. The team was composed of three researchers (Matthew Leavesley, François-Xavier Ricaut, and Sébastien Plutniak), one student from the University of Papua New Guinea (Reubenson Gegeu Hou) and two filmmakers (Guy Beauché and Christophe Joly). To complete the data collected during the 2017 and 2018 fieldworks, the team went back to the village of Awim. During this visit the filmmakers shot a film documentary about the arrival, 50-70 thousand years ago, of the first settlers to the Sahul (the landmass composed of New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania).

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February Fieldwork: on the top of highest mountain of Papua New Guinea

Team and community member at the front of the health center at Womatne (Simbu valley), following project presentation and anthropological sampling.

The Papuan Past project team has just returned from fieldwork in Mount Wilhelm area in the Highlands region (Simbu province). Dr Leavesley, Dr Ricaut, Dr Brucato and Mr Kariwiga participated to this fieldwork on one of the highest mountain (Mount Wilhelm culminated at 4500m asl) of the ancient Sahul landmass (New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania). Our last 2 weeks in Papua New Guinea included two periods of research.

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Our 2018 fieldwork in Papua New Guinea is ending! A brief outline of our work in Port Moresby, Highlands and East Sepik

Rock art hand stencils in the rockshelters surveyed (middle Arafundi area).

The Papuan Past project team has just returned from fieldwork in East Sepik. We stayed few days in Port Moresby for preliminary analyses to organize logistics and various debriefing before departing Papua New Guinea. Our last month in PNG included two periods of research: the first one at the University of PNG focusing on the return of preliminary results through a series of presentations and the collection of additional biological anthropology samples (genetic and phenotypic data collection), and the second one in East Sepik focusing on archeological survey and excavation, with additional time given over to anthropobiological sampling and ethnographic data collection.

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