An Introduction to the Investigations at Kuk Swamp

Part One: Agriculture in a World, Regional and Local Setting

Early Agriculture in World Perspective

Domesticatory Relationships in the New Guinea Highlands

Environment and Food Production in Papua New Guinea

The Wetland Field Systems of the New Guinea Highlands

Part Two: Kuk Swamp and its Store of Evidence

Kuk Swamp

Volcanic Ash at Kuk

Tibito Tephra, Taim Tudak and the Impact of Thin Tephra Falls

Palaeoecology

The Archaeobotany of Kuk

Part Three: People in the Swamp and on its Margins

Phase 1: The Case for 10,000-Year-Old Agriculture at Kuk

Phase 2: Mounded Cultivation During the Mid Holocene

Phase 3: The Emergence of Ditches

Phase 4: Major Disposal Channels, Slot-Like Ditches and Grid-Patterned Fields

Phase 5: Retreating Forests, Flat-Bottomed Ditches and Raised Fields

Phase 6: Impact of the Sweet Potato on Swamp Landuse, Pig Rearing and Exchange Relations

Houses in and out of the Swamp

Part Four: Artefacts of Wood and Stone

The Kuk Artefacts, an Introduction

Artefacts of Wood

Kuk Stone Artefacts: Technology, Usewear and Residues

Stone Sources and Petrology of Kuk Swamp Artefacts

Part Five: The Traditional Owners

Hagen Settlement Histories: Dispersals and Consolidations

Kuk Phase 7, 1969–1990, the Kuk Research Station: A Colonial Interlude

Kuk 1991 to 1998, the Station Abandoned and the Land Resumed: Archaeological Implications

Kuk Phase 8: Heritage Issues to 2008