Dylan Gaffney
Biographic Data
| ID | 597865 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dylan Gaffney |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dylan |
| FAMILY NAME | Gaffney |
| SIGNATURE | GAFFNEY D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4869-9730 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 71 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Foraging in island rainforests during the Last Glacial Maximum: Chronostratigraphic, zooarchaeological, and technological evidence from Biak Island, Indonesian Papua
What can lithics tell us about anthropological archaeology's grand challenges
Bayesian chronological modelling for early pottery in the far western Pacific: Evidence from the Raja Ampat Islands of West New Guinea
The initial dispersal routes and subsequent exchange networks of Austronesian speaking populations in Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and Near Oceania continue to be debated. Accurate and precise chronologies on pottery assemblages are key in clarifying these population movements and dynamics. Previous scholars have suggested red-slipped pottery may be a proxy for Malayo-Polynesian speakers’ presence, and Lapita pottery may be a proxy for Proto-Ocea…
Rock Painting Traditions around Waigeo Island, Raja Ampat, West New Guinea
Rock paintings around the western tip of New Guinea are extensive but poorly understood. This paper describes rock art around the northern Raja Ampat Islands, just off the coast of western New Guinea. Two main painting traditions are documented: a red pigment tradition and a white pigment tradition. Red paintings generally occur up to 10 m above the modern mean sea-level and are stylistically related to a larger painting complex around the Bomber…
Culturing island biomes: Marsupial translocation and bone tool production around New Guinea during the Pleistocene–Holocene
Exotic ceramics from the Murray Islands, Eastern Torres Strait
This study reports on new ceramic finds from the Murray Islands group in the Eastern Torres Strait. • Combined use of petrography (optical mineralogy) and portable X-Ray fluorescence has identified at least two sources for archaeological ceramics in the region. • Combined radiocarbon and U-Th dating of an early potsherd establishes ceramic manufacture and transport by at least 2600 years ago. • These findings provide new insights into the uptake …
Five Centuries of Settlement Dynamics and Mobility in the Northern Raja Ampat Islands of West Papua
We explore changes to settlement and mobility in the northern Raja Ampat Islands (Waigeo, Gam, and Batanta) over the past five centuries, a time when speakers of several Austronesian languages were moving throughout the archipelago. The evidence shows: (1) some settlement relocations were rapid, occurring within a generation, while other settlements remained fixed for hundreds of years; and (2) there were numerous clan and family scale movements …
Human dispersal and plant processing in the Pacific 55 000-50 000 years ago
The dynamics of our species' dispersal into the Pacific remains intensely debated. The authors present archaeological investigations in the Raja Ampat Islands, north-west of New Guinea, that provide the earliest known evidence for humans arriving in the Pacific more than 55 000-50 000 years ago. Seafaring simulations demonstrate that a northern equatorial route into New Guinea via the Raja Ampat Islands was a viable dispersal corridor to Sahul at…
Des civilisations du végétal préhistoriques sous les tropiques
Global Patterns in Island Colonization during the Holocene
Analysis of the spatial and temporal structure of global island colonization allows us to frame the extent of insular human cultural diversity, model the impact of common environmental factors cross-culturally, and understand the contribution of island maritime societies to big historical processes. No such analysis has, however, been undertaken since the 1980s. In this paper we review and update global patterns in island colonization, synthesizi…
Peopling island rainforests: Global trends from the Early Pleistocene to the Late Holocene
This paper is a cross-comparative examination of how tropical forested islands were populated by humans. It first describes the unique ecological conditions of these environments, how they fluctuated during glacial cycles, and the challenges and affordances they provided people. The paper then explores the global archaeological record, classifying modes of colonisation that led insular tropical forests to be populated. These modes include terrest…
Identifying nineteenth century Trans-Pacific production and trade: A geochemical and stylistic study of Chinese opium pipe bowls from southern New Zealand
Tropical Foodways and Exchange along the Coastal Margin of Northeastern New Guinea
New Guinea was host to some of the most complex maritime interaction networks in the tropics. We take a multi-proxy approach to investigate the foodways at the heart of the extensive Madang exchange network in the last millennium before the present: 1) invertebrate zooarchaeological analysis identifies the dependence on shellfish collecting from the coral reef and sandy floor littoral zone; 2) examination of vertebrate remains demonstrates the re…
Pleistocene Water Crossings and Adaptive Flexibility Within the Homo Genus
Pleistocene water crossings, long thought to be an innovation of Homo sapiens , may extend beyond our species to encompass Middle and Early Pleistocene Homo . However, it remains unclear how water crossings differed among hominin populations, the extent to which Homo sapiens are uniquely flexible in these adaptive behaviors, and how the tempo and scale of water crossings played out in different regions. I apply the adaptive flexibility hypothesis…
The Spice Islands in Prehistory: Archaeology in the Northern Moluccas, Indonesia ed. by Peter Bellwood
Reviewed by: The Spice Islands in Prehistory: Archaeology in the Northern Moluccas, Indonesia ed. by Peter Bellwood Dylan Gaffney The Spice Islands in Prehistory: Archaeology in the Northern Moluccas, Indonesia. Peter Bellwood, editor. Terra Australis 50. Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2019. 246 pp., 96 figures (including color), 68 tables. Paperback AUD $55, ISBN 9781760462901; free epub, ISBN 9781760462918. DOI10.22459/TA50.201…
Sago oven pottery production in the Raja Ampat Islands of the far western Pacific
This paper is the first ethnographic description of ceramic sago oven production in the Raja Ampat Islands of West Papua. These rectilinear ovens are widespread throughout eastern Indonesia, used to bake sago flour into small ‘cakes,’ which can be stored during times of food shortage or used in exchange. Little is known about the emergence of this technology in the past and so this modern baseline serves as an important link to understand product…
Coastal mobility and lithic supply lines in northeast New Guinea
This paper investigates how coastal mobility and a community’s place within regional trade networks intersect with technological organisation. To do this, we identified different types of lithic production and exchange during the late pre-colonial period at three coastal sites around Madang in northeast New Guinea. The study is the first major technological and sourcing study in this area. Consistent with terrestrial models, lithic technological …
The Emergence of Shell Valuable Exchange in the New Guinea Highlands
Shell valuable exchange in the New Guinea Highlands has been a key interest in anthropology, providing insight into economics, aesthetics, and social stratification among banded communities. This article describes how shell exchange at ethnographic present reflects deeper historical processes. We trace the origins and subsequent changes in shell use from the terminal Pleistocene to the Late Holocene at the site of Kiowa in Chimbu Province, Papua …
Maintenance and Mutability amongst Specialist Potters on the Northeast Coast of New Guinea
This paper examines a central concern in archaeological research: the interplay between technological and social flux over the longue durée. This is done by describing ceramic technological continuity and change, and its correspondence with broader social processes, on the northeast coast of New Guinea in the recent past. It presents new ethnographic information from Madang, Papua New Guinea, involving Bilbil and Yabob potters, to outline the cha…
The archaeology of forest exploitation and change in the tropics during the Pleistocene: The case of Northern Sahul (Pleistocene New Guinea)
Archaeological Investigations Into the Origins of Bel Trading Groups Around the Madang Coast, Northeast New Guinea
This article presents archaeological data critical to our understanding of the pre-colonial past along the northeast coast of New Guinea. Two archaeological sites from coastal and offshore Madang, Papua New Guinea, were excavated to establish the timing of colonization by Bel (Austronesian) speakers, and the subsequent emergence of their trade and exchange networks along the coast leading up to ethnographic accounts. These sites include Nunguri o…
Sue Bulmer's legacy in highland New Guinea: A re‐examination of the Bulmer Collection and future directions
This paper examines the archaeological collections accumulated by Sue Bulmer during her time in the New Guinea Highlands. Bulmer used this collection as a basis to investigate key themes in the island's prehistory. We focus on several of these research themes, established in the early years, but which remain pertinent: the occupation of the interior during the Late Pleistocene, the establishment of agriculture and horticulture in the Holocene, an…
Crossing the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in the New Guinea Highlands: Evidence from the lithic assemblage of Kiowa rockshelter
Pleistocene Water Crossings and Adaptive Flexibility Within the Homo Genus
Pleistocene water crossings, long thought to be an innovation of Homo sapiens , may extend beyond our species to encompass Middle and Early Pleistocene Homo . However, it remains unclear how water crossings differed among hominin populations, the extent to which Homo sapiens are uniquely flexible in these adaptive behaviors, and how the tempo and scale of water crossings played out in different regions. I apply the adaptive flexibility hypothesis…
Crossing the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in the New Guinea Highlands: Evidence from the lithic assemblage of Kiowa rockshelter
The Emergence of Shell Valuable Exchange in the New Guinea Highlands
Shell valuable exchange in the New Guinea Highlands has been a key interest in anthropology, providing insight into economics, aesthetics, and social stratification among banded communities. This article describes how shell exchange at ethnographic present reflects deeper historical processes. We trace the origins and subsequent changes in shell use from the terminal Pleistocene to the Late Holocene at the site of Kiowa in Chimbu Province, Papua …
Sue Bulmer's legacy in highland New Guinea: A re‐examination of the Bulmer Collection and future directions
This paper examines the archaeological collections accumulated by Sue Bulmer during her time in the New Guinea Highlands. Bulmer used this collection as a basis to investigate key themes in the island's prehistory. We focus on several of these research themes, established in the early years, but which remain pertinent: the occupation of the interior during the Late Pleistocene, the establishment of agriculture and horticulture in the Holocene, an…
Global Patterns in Island Colonization during the Holocene
Analysis of the spatial and temporal structure of global island colonization allows us to frame the extent of insular human cultural diversity, model the impact of common environmental factors cross-culturally, and understand the contribution of island maritime societies to big historical processes. No such analysis has, however, been undertaken since the 1980s. In this paper we review and update global patterns in island colonization, synthesizi…
Archaeological Investigations Into the Origins of Bel Trading Groups Around the Madang Coast, Northeast New Guinea
This article presents archaeological data critical to our understanding of the pre-colonial past along the northeast coast of New Guinea. Two archaeological sites from coastal and offshore Madang, Papua New Guinea, were excavated to establish the timing of colonization by Bel (Austronesian) speakers, and the subsequent emergence of their trade and exchange networks along the coast leading up to ethnographic accounts. These sites include Nunguri o…
Human dispersal and plant processing in the Pacific 55 000-50 000 years ago
The dynamics of our species' dispersal into the Pacific remains intensely debated. The authors present archaeological investigations in the Raja Ampat Islands, north-west of New Guinea, that provide the earliest known evidence for humans arriving in the Pacific more than 55 000-50 000 years ago. Seafaring simulations demonstrate that a northern equatorial route into New Guinea via the Raja Ampat Islands was a viable dispersal corridor to Sahul at…
Peopling island rainforests: Global trends from the Early Pleistocene to the Late Holocene
This paper is a cross-comparative examination of how tropical forested islands were populated by humans. It first describes the unique ecological conditions of these environments, how they fluctuated during glacial cycles, and the challenges and affordances they provided people. The paper then explores the global archaeological record, classifying modes of colonisation that led insular tropical forests to be populated. These modes include terrest…
Maintenance and Mutability amongst Specialist Potters on the Northeast Coast of New Guinea
This paper examines a central concern in archaeological research: the interplay between technological and social flux over the longue durée. This is done by describing ceramic technological continuity and change, and its correspondence with broader social processes, on the northeast coast of New Guinea in the recent past. It presents new ethnographic information from Madang, Papua New Guinea, involving Bilbil and Yabob potters, to outline the cha…
Tropical Foodways and Exchange along the Coastal Margin of Northeastern New Guinea
New Guinea was host to some of the most complex maritime interaction networks in the tropics. We take a multi-proxy approach to investigate the foodways at the heart of the extensive Madang exchange network in the last millennium before the present: 1) invertebrate zooarchaeological analysis identifies the dependence on shellfish collecting from the coral reef and sandy floor littoral zone; 2) examination of vertebrate remains demonstrates the re…
Coastal mobility and lithic supply lines in northeast New Guinea
This paper investigates how coastal mobility and a community’s place within regional trade networks intersect with technological organisation. To do this, we identified different types of lithic production and exchange during the late pre-colonial period at three coastal sites around Madang in northeast New Guinea. The study is the first major technological and sourcing study in this area. Consistent with terrestrial models, lithic technological …
Crossing the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in the New Guinea Highlands: Evidence from the lithic assemblage of Kiowa rockshelter
Sue Bulmer's legacy in highland New Guinea: A re‐examination of the Bulmer Collection and future directions
This paper examines the archaeological collections accumulated by Sue Bulmer during her time in the New Guinea Highlands. Bulmer used this collection as a basis to investigate key themes in the island's prehistory. We focus on several of these research themes, established in the early years, but which remain pertinent: the occupation of the interior during the Late Pleistocene, the establishment of agriculture and horticulture in the Holocene, an…
The archaeology of forest exploitation and change in the tropics during the Pleistocene: The case of Northern Sahul (Pleistocene New Guinea)
Archaeological Investigations Into the Origins of Bel Trading Groups Around the Madang Coast, Northeast New Guinea
This article presents archaeological data critical to our understanding of the pre-colonial past along the northeast coast of New Guinea. Two archaeological sites from coastal and offshore Madang, Papua New Guinea, were excavated to establish the timing of colonization by Bel (Austronesian) speakers, and the subsequent emergence of their trade and exchange networks along the coast leading up to ethnographic accounts. These sites include Nunguri o…
Maintenance and Mutability amongst Specialist Potters on the Northeast Coast of New Guinea
This paper examines a central concern in archaeological research: the interplay between technological and social flux over the longue durée. This is done by describing ceramic technological continuity and change, and its correspondence with broader social processes, on the northeast coast of New Guinea in the recent past. It presents new ethnographic information from Madang, Papua New Guinea, involving Bilbil and Yabob potters, to outline the cha…
Sago oven pottery production in the Raja Ampat Islands of the far western Pacific
This paper is the first ethnographic description of ceramic sago oven production in the Raja Ampat Islands of West Papua. These rectilinear ovens are widespread throughout eastern Indonesia, used to bake sago flour into small ‘cakes,’ which can be stored during times of food shortage or used in exchange. Little is known about the emergence of this technology in the past and so this modern baseline serves as an important link to understand product…
Coastal mobility and lithic supply lines in northeast New Guinea
This paper investigates how coastal mobility and a community’s place within regional trade networks intersect with technological organisation. To do this, we identified different types of lithic production and exchange during the late pre-colonial period at three coastal sites around Madang in northeast New Guinea. The study is the first major technological and sourcing study in this area. Consistent with terrestrial models, lithic technological …
The Emergence of Shell Valuable Exchange in the New Guinea Highlands
Shell valuable exchange in the New Guinea Highlands has been a key interest in anthropology, providing insight into economics, aesthetics, and social stratification among banded communities. This article describes how shell exchange at ethnographic present reflects deeper historical processes. We trace the origins and subsequent changes in shell use from the terminal Pleistocene to the Late Holocene at the site of Kiowa in Chimbu Province, Papua …
Identifying nineteenth century Trans-Pacific production and trade: A geochemical and stylistic study of Chinese opium pipe bowls from southern New Zealand
Tropical Foodways and Exchange along the Coastal Margin of Northeastern New Guinea
New Guinea was host to some of the most complex maritime interaction networks in the tropics. We take a multi-proxy approach to investigate the foodways at the heart of the extensive Madang exchange network in the last millennium before the present: 1) invertebrate zooarchaeological analysis identifies the dependence on shellfish collecting from the coral reef and sandy floor littoral zone; 2) examination of vertebrate remains demonstrates the re…
Pleistocene Water Crossings and Adaptive Flexibility Within the Homo Genus
Pleistocene water crossings, long thought to be an innovation of Homo sapiens , may extend beyond our species to encompass Middle and Early Pleistocene Homo . However, it remains unclear how water crossings differed among hominin populations, the extent to which Homo sapiens are uniquely flexible in these adaptive behaviors, and how the tempo and scale of water crossings played out in different regions. I apply the adaptive flexibility hypothesis…
The Spice Islands in Prehistory: Archaeology in the Northern Moluccas, Indonesia ed. by Peter Bellwood
Reviewed by: The Spice Islands in Prehistory: Archaeology in the Northern Moluccas, Indonesia ed. by Peter Bellwood Dylan Gaffney The Spice Islands in Prehistory: Archaeology in the Northern Moluccas, Indonesia. Peter Bellwood, editor. Terra Australis 50. Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2019. 246 pp., 96 figures (including color), 68 tables. Paperback AUD $55, ISBN 9781760462901; free epub, ISBN 9781760462918. DOI10.22459/TA50.201…
Global Patterns in Island Colonization during the Holocene
Analysis of the spatial and temporal structure of global island colonization allows us to frame the extent of insular human cultural diversity, model the impact of common environmental factors cross-culturally, and understand the contribution of island maritime societies to big historical processes. No such analysis has, however, been undertaken since the 1980s. In this paper we review and update global patterns in island colonization, synthesizi…
Peopling island rainforests: Global trends from the Early Pleistocene to the Late Holocene
This paper is a cross-comparative examination of how tropical forested islands were populated by humans. It first describes the unique ecological conditions of these environments, how they fluctuated during glacial cycles, and the challenges and affordances they provided people. The paper then explores the global archaeological record, classifying modes of colonisation that led insular tropical forests to be populated. These modes include terrest…
Des civilisations du végétal préhistoriques sous les tropiques
Exotic ceramics from the Murray Islands, Eastern Torres Strait
This study reports on new ceramic finds from the Murray Islands group in the Eastern Torres Strait. • Combined use of petrography (optical mineralogy) and portable X-Ray fluorescence has identified at least two sources for archaeological ceramics in the region. • Combined radiocarbon and U-Th dating of an early potsherd establishes ceramic manufacture and transport by at least 2600 years ago. • These findings provide new insights into the uptake …
Five Centuries of Settlement Dynamics and Mobility in the Northern Raja Ampat Islands of West Papua
We explore changes to settlement and mobility in the northern Raja Ampat Islands (Waigeo, Gam, and Batanta) over the past five centuries, a time when speakers of several Austronesian languages were moving throughout the archipelago. The evidence shows: (1) some settlement relocations were rapid, occurring within a generation, while other settlements remained fixed for hundreds of years; and (2) there were numerous clan and family scale movements …
Human dispersal and plant processing in the Pacific 55 000-50 000 years ago
The dynamics of our species' dispersal into the Pacific remains intensely debated. The authors present archaeological investigations in the Raja Ampat Islands, north-west of New Guinea, that provide the earliest known evidence for humans arriving in the Pacific more than 55 000-50 000 years ago. Seafaring simulations demonstrate that a northern equatorial route into New Guinea via the Raja Ampat Islands was a viable dispersal corridor to Sahul at…
Rock Painting Traditions around Waigeo Island, Raja Ampat, West New Guinea
Rock paintings around the western tip of New Guinea are extensive but poorly understood. This paper describes rock art around the northern Raja Ampat Islands, just off the coast of western New Guinea. Two main painting traditions are documented: a red pigment tradition and a white pigment tradition. Red paintings generally occur up to 10 m above the modern mean sea-level and are stylistically related to a larger painting complex around the Bomber…
Culturing island biomes: Marsupial translocation and bone tool production around New Guinea during the Pleistocene–Holocene
Foraging in island rainforests during the Last Glacial Maximum: Chronostratigraphic, zooarchaeological, and technological evidence from Biak Island, Indonesian Papua
What can lithics tell us about anthropological archaeology's grand challenges
Bayesian chronological modelling for early pottery in the far western Pacific: Evidence from the Raja Ampat Islands of West New Guinea
The initial dispersal routes and subsequent exchange networks of Austronesian speaking populations in Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and Near Oceania continue to be debated. Accurate and precise chronologies on pottery assemblages are key in clarifying these population movements and dynamics. Previous scholars have suggested red-slipped pottery may be a proxy for Malayo-Polynesian speakers’ presence, and Lapita pottery may be a proxy for Proto-Ocea…
Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (21 works) · Archaeology (18 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (18 works) · Geography (17 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (14 works) · History (13 works) · New guinea (10 works) · Biology (9 works) · Ethnology (9 works) · Ecology (8 works)