Sourcing the Axe Trade: Investigating Geochemical Approaches to the Highlands Axe Quarries of Papua New Guinea

Anne Ford

The Highlands Axe Quarries are renowned in Papua New Guinea for their production of polished stone axes as both prestige and utilitarian goods. These important tools were used in hunting, gardening and warfare, but also were essential in the wealth and status economy, used for brideprice transactions, war reparations, in ceremonies such as mortuary feasts, or in garden magic. Although traditionally the advent of polished stone is associated with the development of agriculture, which in the Highlands occurs by the early-mid Holocene as attested by the site of Kuk Swamp, the time depth of the axe quarries and their associated exchange is less well known. Yet currently it is impossible to attribute polished stone present in archaeological sites to the possible source. While previous studies were completed in the 1960-1980s using largely petrography and limited geochemical work, the results of these works have not been able to be reproduced due to a lack of access to source reference material. However, a collection of stone axes by Dame Marilyn Strathern, now held in the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology at Cambridge University, was allocated to source by the geologist most known for his work on the stone quarries, Professor John Chappell. This research will present the results of an initial trial of geochemical analysis of these polished axes.