Holocene Environmental Change on the North Coast of New Guinea: A Multi‑Proxy Study from Watinglo

Czerene Alliya Woods Alvaran*, Janelle Stevenson, and Shimona Kealy

The Watinglo rockshelter provides a critical archaeological sequence for investigating human–environment interactions on the north‑west coast of New Guinea. Despite the significance of this region, palaeoenvironmental records for the coastal lowlands remain sparse compared to the highlands, limiting our understanding of how ecosystems and human subsistence patterns responded to post‑glacial climatic shifts. This project reconstructs Holocene environmental dynamics at Watinglo using a multi‑proxy approach integrating pollen data with zooarchaeological faunal records, alongside published regional environmental proxies, to contextualise this record across the broader Melanesian landscape. Watinglo has yielded a complex stratigraphic sequence, including chronostratigraphic hiatuses and a notable mid‑Holocene gap. To address this, a robust age–depth model was developed using Bayesian multi‑phase modelling incorporating new and recalibrated dates to situate environmental and archaeological signals through time. By embedding the Watinglo data within a broader framework of regional environmental proxies, this study distinguishes shifts caused by natural climatic forcing from those influenced by changes in human site use over time. These results demonstrate the value of archaeological deposits as palaeoenvironmental archives and provide a deep‑time baseline for understanding biodiversity change and human adaptation to the dynamic coastal environments defining Holocene New Guinea. Such records are important for informing archaeological narratives and conservation practices.