Clarifying ambiguity
A reassessment of the multi-disciplinary evidence for a 10,000 year-old palaeosurface at Kuk Swamp, highlands of Papua New Guinea
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23312567 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tim Denham (0000-0002-8164-2990, Australian National University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2813-432X • E-ISSN: 2813-432X |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH) |
| DOI | 10.3389/fearc.2026.1818722 |
| OpenAlex | W7169864580 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 48 |
Shifting cultivation is a widespread agricultural practice in the wet tropical forests of the world, as well as other environments. Short-term cultivation followed by long-term fallow is a human adaptation to the low fertility of soils under tropical forests. Forms of shifting cultivation are likely to be ancient and among the earliest agricultural practices. Here, a multi-disciplinary method for the investigation of shifting cultivation in the past is outlined. The method is grounded in direct archaeological evidence and palaeo-pedological evidence for soil formation processes associated with cultivation practices, which are interwoven with contextual palaeoecological and geomorphological evidence for landscape transformation. Hence, these multi-disciplinary lines of evidence are recast to assess whether a short period of use of a c. 10,000 year-old palaeosurface at Kuk Swamp in montane Papua New Guinea represents shifting cultivation or alternative types of plant exploitation in the past.
Agriculture · Archaeological evidence · Central Highlands · New guinea · Shifting cultivation · Swamp · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory
Place and People
Origins of Agriculture at Kuk Swamp in the Highlands of New Guinea
Convergent evolution and parallelism in plant domestication revealed by an expanding archaeological record
Ten Thousand Years of Cultivation at Kuk Swamp in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea
Early and mid Holocene tool-use and processing of taro (Colocasia esculenta), yam (Dioscorea sp.) and other plants at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea
Phase 1
A Review of Recent Molecular Genetics Evidence for Sugarcane Evolution and Domestication
The palaeoenvironments of Kuk Swamp from the beginnings of agriculture in the highlands of Papua New Guinea
Archaeological evidence for mid‐Holocene agriculture in the interior of Papua New Guinea
QEMSCAN® analysis of clay-rich stratigraphy associated with early agricultural contexts at Kuk Swamp, Papua New Guinea
Intensification of Agricultural Systems in Papua New Guinea
Agricultural emergence and transformation in the Upper Wahgi valley, Papua New Guinea, during the Holocene
A late-Holocene palaeoecological record from Ambra Crater in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and implications for agricultural history
Contiguous multi‐proxy analyses (X‐radiography, diatom, pollen, and microcharcoal) of Holocene archaeological features at Kuk Swamp, Upper Wahgi Valley, Papua New Guinea
Sediments or soils? Multi-scale geoarchaeological investigations of stratigraphy and early cultivation practices at Kuk Swamp, highlands of Papua New Guinea
The Appearance of Plant and Animal Domestication in New Guinea
Reading Early Agriculture at Kuk Swamp, Wahgi Valley, Papua New Guinea
Amazonian Dark Earths
Witnesses of the Past
Plant Resources and Palaeobotanical Evidence for Plant Use in the Papua New Guinea Highlands
Phytolith analysis at Kuk, an early agricultural site in Papua New Guinea
Sugarcane in Prehistory
Vegecultures and the social-biological transformations of plants and people
The roots of agriculture and arboriculture in New Guinea
The development of subsistence system models for Island Southeast Asia and Near Oceania
Hunters and Horticulturalists
Nominating and managing a World Heritage Site in the highlands of Papua New Guinea
Early Agriculture and Plant Domestication in New Guinea and Island Southeast Asia
A Practice-Centered Method for Charting the Emergence and Transformation of Agriculture
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |