IMPORTANCE OF SOURCE AVAILABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY: A CASE STUDY FROM PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Abstract

The study of ancient trade and exchange would benefit from detailed analyses conducted at the level of the individual obsidian exposures. A useful method is to evaluate the null hypothesis that all potential sources were equally favourable to those who exploited, exchanged, and used the obsidian. Before deviations from the null hypothesis can be inferred as social behaviour, the physical characteristics of the obsidian exposures and their history in time and space should be studied. These points are illustrated by a case study from Papua New Guinea where volcanic activity during the time of occupation radically altered the availability and accessibility of obsidian sources. Having accounted for environmental factors, changes in the abundance of obsidian from various chemical groups is interpreted in terms of a highly flexible system of exchange that may have been adopted to help cope with the high risks created by volcanic activity.