ANCIENTDIMENSIONS ARTICLE:.

ANCIENT STONES OF NEW GUINEA

Across the world stone structures and monuments have been a constant source of fascination. The most famous of which are probably places such as Stonehenge, Machu Pichu and the Egyptian pyramids. These places tend to feed our collective imagination inspiring romantic ideals of an illustrious past full of giant stone masons wielding enormous stone cutting implements. While Australians tend to look towards Europe for inspiration Pacific people need not look beyond the Pacific rim to find such places as Pohnpei in Micronesia and of course, Easter Island. However, few people outside Bougainville are aware of the extraordinary stone monuments that exist right here in our region.

Bougainville has a variety of stone monuments. There are capstones, stone engravings, standing stones and natural stone monuments.

The most impressive of those are the capstones of Buin and Siwai. Capstones are large stones, up to a tonne in weight, that have been placed on top of smaller stones resulting in a monument that often resembles a large table. Archaeologists have dated some of these capstones, in Buin, to approximately 1000 years old and those in Siwai are most likely to be of a similar age. Capstones are commonly associated with important past events and tumbuna stories.

In Buin capstones occur in the Paubake foothills. Sometimes they are aligned in great avenues of up to ten individual capstones. Some are associated with human burials and some with scatters of pottery. The pottery scatters may represent a number of different things. In the past the people of Buin used to bury their dead in clay pots. Over the years the bones have decayed and the pots broken and dispersed. Other pottery scatters represent old village sites. In this instance the old and broken pots have merely been swept away from the house after they were no longer of any use.

In Siwai, capstones are located in the vicinity Katukuh, Kokhoi, Konga, Kaparo, Lapumo, Kokhoi, Siroi and the Sisika regions. They have also been reported from Sininai and Matekoli. They are important to archaeologists because they inform us about the past.

Some Siwai capstones are very large and will have required a lot of men to move them into place. This suggests to archaeologists that in the past there was a degree of socio-political organisation that included the use of symbols of status or prestige perhaps in some ways similar to the prestige associated with the great slit gongs or garamuts that are present in todays Siwai Men's Houses.

Commonly, capstones have individual names and associated customs. In some cases they mark the track leading into the village of an important person or bigman. When the old people used to walk past a capstone they picked a fresh leaf and placed it on top of the capstone. This is a mark of respect and would ensure a safe journey along the track. On other, perhaps ceremonial occasions, a pig might be placed on the capstone for butchering and distribution. Other capstones are associated with the birth. At these joyous times the new born baby was placed on the capstone and washed for the first time. All of these examples suggest that the capstones represent an idea that requires the respect of the people.

However, capstones are not entirely restricted to Bougainville. Significantly smaller capstones have been reported from Bali-Witu in West New Britain and also Vanuatu. In Bali-Vitu they are called stone seats however little else is as yet known their ancestry or ceremonial use. In Vanuatu capstones are constructed from coral slabs and are associated with burial customs. In this context, certain significant skulls are placed under the capstone for ceremonial purposes. At present there is no reason to suggest any significant connection between these quite different regions on the basis of the presence of capstones.

There are only three stone engraving sites in ABG region; one each in Siwai, Saposa Island and an engraved standing stone at Tohatsi, in Buka. The Saposa Island. engraving depicts a human figure carved into a standing stone. Although broadly similar figures occur elsewhere in the Bismarck Archipelago it is the only one of its type known to archaeologists in Bougainville.

The Siwai engraving depicts two significant cultural figures known as Dervwa and Poruwa. They are depicted with the images of the sun and moon and play an important role in Siwai cosmology. The engravings are a tangible connection between ancient tumbuna stories and the present.

A particularly significant engraved standing stone located at Tohatsi in notrthern Buka was described by Beatrice Blackwood in 1935. This stone was engraved with a variety of intricate motifs or patterns but has since literally disappeared. Unfortunately, during colonial times it was removed to Rabaul and is currently thought to be lost under the ash of the Tavurvur and Ulavul 1994 eruptions. The traditional owners of this standing stone are very keen to retrieve it so if you have any information please contact Nicholas Peta or Chief Herman Halihu c/o the ABG in Buka.

While capstones appear to be confined to southern Bougainville standing stones are present throughout most of the island with their highest density in Rotokas, Central Bougainville. Here they tend to be of an elongated angular or rectangular rather than the cylindrical shape of those at Tohatsi, Lonahan and Hanahan in Buka.

The Rotokas standing stones are located along the ridge tops and commonly mark old village sites. Although the villages have not been occupied for some years the names of the standing stones remain in the stories associated with events that occurred in those places.

During a recent visit to a standing stone called 'Pako', located near Tekoknih in northern Bougainville, there was the remains of a village that had recently been abandoned when the inhabitants moved on to other village and garden sites. The association of the village with the standing stone attests to the continued social and cultural importance of such monuments. Indeed a stone arrangement has in recent years been erected in Hahalis.

Anyone who has seen to the beautiful Buka Passage cannot have failed to see the impressive Tchibo. This stone stands on the reef at the foot of Sohano Island and silently 'watches over the passage'. A number of other significant stones are dotted all over Bougainville and Buka from Iltopan to Sipai, Teop, Rotokas, Buin and Siwai.

From an archaeological perspective these monuments point to a long and complex history of the region with many more secrets to uncover.

Papua New Guinea is a vast country with relatively few archaeologists. If you know of any archaeological sites in your region that you think might be of some interest to archaeology please contact the authors by mail at UPNG or the National Museum and Art Gallery.

Acknowledgments
Thanks to the ABG Administration in Buka Town, Wakunai, Panakei and Ameu and Mr Joe Lera and staff at the Bougainville University Centre. This research was undertaken as part of the Pioneer of Island Melanesia project at the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge. Also thanks to Dr linus digim'Rina and Dr Dora K. Ayius at the Dept. of Anthropology and Sociology at UPNG.

Matthew G Leavesley is a visiting archaeology lecturer at the UPNG and visiting researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at the University of Cambridge

Herman A Mandui is the curator of prehistory at the National Museum and Art Gallery, Port Moresby.

.:Story originally published by:.
The National Papua / New Guinea - Feb 13.06

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