Excavations at Vunavaung (SDI), Rakival Village, Watom Island, Papua New Guinea

At Vunavaung (SDI) in the coastal settlement of Rakival, two of a series of four test pits just in front of the raised coral cliff at the rear of the present-day village revealed an undisturbed 1.4-m-deep cultural deposit, sealed by about 1.8 to 2.2 m of redeposited and primary volcanic ash. The excavations, although of limited extent, provided four securely dated pottery assemblages spaced over 1000 years from 800 BC to after AD 200. These document the stratigraphic relationship between highly decorated Lapila pottery at the beginning of the sequence and ceramics minimally decorated with applied-relief and nail incision at the end.