Models for Matenkupkum: interpreting a late Pleistocene site from southern new Ireland, Papua New Guinea

This paper has two purposes: firstly, to pre­ sent the data from the site of Matenkupkum in more detail than has been done so far (see Allen et al. 1988; Allen et al. 1989), although not in its final form; and secondly, to explore means of modelling a data set with some unusual features to it when compared either with other aspects of the Pacific archaeological record or with ideas current about the Palaeolithic in other parts of the world. As the site's data will only make sense when set in some framework, possible models are discussed in the first part of the paper, and the data is in the second part. Before considering either of these aspects, however, some discussion is necessary as to why the Matenkupkum data are unusual and challenging. ...