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Kilu Cave is a paleoanthropological site located on
Buka Island Buka Island is the second-largest island in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, in eastern Papua New Guinea. It is in Buka Rural LLG of North Bougainville District, with the Autonomous Region's and district's capital city of Buka, Bougain ...
in the
Autonomous Region of Bougainville Bougainville ( ; ; Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil''), officially the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (Tok Pisin: ''Otonomos Region bilong Bogenvil''), is an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea. The largest island is Bougainville Island, while the re ...
, Papua New Guinea. Kilu Cave is located at the base of a limestone cliff, from the modern coastline. With evidence for human occupation dating back to 30,000 years, Kilu Cave is the earliest known site for human occupation in the
Solomon Islands archipelago The Solomon Islands (archipelago) is an island group in the western South Pacific Ocean, north-east of Australia. The archipelago is in the Melanesian subregion and bioregion of Oceania and forms the eastern boundary of the Solomon Sea. The ...
. The site is the oldest proof of
paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
people navigating the open ocean i.e. navigating without land in sight. To travel from
Nissan island Nissan Island (also Green Island or Sir Charles Hardy Island) is the largest of the Green Islands of Papua New Guinea. It is located at , about 200 km east of Rabaul on New Britain and about 200 km north-west of Bougainville. The isl ...
to Buka requires crossing of at least 60 kilometers of open sea. The presence of paleolithic people at Buka therefore is at the same time evidence for the oldest and the longest paleolithic sea travel known so far.


Background

Before the discovery of Kilu Cave in 1987, the earliest sites showing evidence for human occupation in the Solomon Islands archipelago were Lapita sites dating back to around 3,000 years old. However, archaeologists had long believed that human occupation in the Solomon Islands occurred much earlier, based on linguistic and anthropological evidence. During the coldest part of the last Ice Age (28,000 to 18,000 years ago), Buka Island was part of a much larger island, Greater Bougainville, which connected the present-day islands of Buka, Bougainville,
Shortland Islands The Shortland Islands is an archipelago of Western Province, Solomon Islands, at . The island group lies in the extreme north-west of the country's territory, close to the south-east edge of Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea. The largest isla ...
, Choiseul, Santa Isabel and
Nggela The Nggela Islands, also known as the Florida Islands, are a small island group in the Central Province of Solomon Islands, a sovereign state (since 1978) in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The chain is composed of four larger islands and about ...
into one large, contiguous island; this large island was narrowly separated from
Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...
. At its maximum, Greater Bougainville would have had a total land area of around . Reaching Kilu Cave required crossing the
Wallace Line The Wallace Line or Wallace's Line is a faunal boundary line drawn in 1859 by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and named by English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley that separates the biogeographical realms of Asia and Wallacea, a tran ...
, reaching the
Sahul __NOTOC__ Sahul (), also called Sahul-land, Meganesia, Papualand and Greater Australia, was a paleocontinent that encompassed the modern-day landmasses of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. Sahul was in the south-we ...
and making further sea crossings to reach Greater Bougainville. Archaeologically, the people at Greater Bougainville appeared to live in relative isolation after arriving at the island, with the isolation possibly punctuated by the external introduction of ''
Phalanger orientalis The northern common cuscus (''Phalanger orientalis''), also known as the gray cuscus, is a species of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae native to northern New Guinea and adjacent smaller islands, but is now also found in the Bismarck Archipel ...
'' and ''
Canarium indicum ''Canarium indicum'', known as galip nut, is a mainly dioecious tree native in eastern Melanesia.Thomson, L. A. J. & Evans, B. Canarium indicum var. indicum and C. harveyi (canarium nut). Tradit. Trees Pacific Islands Their Cult. Environ. Use 20 ...
''. This relative isolation ended with the arrival of the Lapita people.


Stratigraphy

Kilu Cave was first occupied during the
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
from around 29,000 to 20,000 BP. The earliest
radiocarbon date Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...
(ANU-5990: 28740 +/- 280 BP) was made on the shell of a sea snail (
Nerita ''Nerita'' is a genus of medium-sized to small sea snails with a gill and an operculum, marine gastropod molluscs in the subfamily Neritinae of the family Neritidae, the nerites.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Nerita Linnaeus, 1758. A ...
) and using the southern curve (SHCAL13) calibrates to between 29,850-31,560 BC cal (95% probability). After a hiatus during the end of the
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
the cave is reoccupied more intensively during the
Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...
from around 9,000 to 5,000 BP. The hiatus in occupation was most likely due to changes in the sea level that left Kilu Cave far away from the coastline. Some post-Lapita Buka phase pottery was also found at Kilu Cave in its upper layers after around 2,500 BP.


Fauna

The people of Kilu Cave exploited a wide range of terrestrial and marine animals for food. Most of the animal bones found at Kilu Cave were probably due to human predation. The site contains a large assemblage of shell, fish bones and terrestrial animal remains. The terrestrial animal remains came from mammals and reptiles. The mammalian remains were dominated by rodents, followed by bats. The reptilian remains came primarily from lizards, followed by snakes, with some coming from turtles and frogs. The lizard assemblage mostly came from
varanids The Varanidae are a family of lizards in the superfamily Varanoidea within the Anguimorpha group. The family, a group of carnivorous and frugivorous lizards, includes the living genus '' Varanus'' and a number of extinct genera more closely re ...
and
skinks Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae, a family in the infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one of the most diverse families of lizards. Ski ...
, with some coming from
agamids Agamidae is a family of over 300 species of iguanian lizards indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Overview Phylogenetically, they may be sister to the I ...
. The bones of both reef and
pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...
fish were found at Kilu Cave. While the bulk of the fish bone remains came from reef fish, about 20% of the fish bones from the Pleistocene layer came from pelagic fish. The pelagic fish bones came from the
Scombridae The mackerel, tuna, and bonito family, Scombridae, includes many of the most important and familiar food fishes. The family consists of 51 species in 15 genera and two subfamilies. All species are in the subfamily Scombrinae, except the butterfly ...
,
Coryphaena ''Coryphaena'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes known as the dolphinfishes, and is currently the only known genus in the family Coryphaenidae. The generic name is from Greek κορυφή (''koryphē'', "crown, top") and -αινα (-''aina'' ...
and
Carangidae The Carangidae are a family of ray-finned fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, runners, and scads. It is the largest of the six families included within the order Carangiformes. Some authorities classify it as the only family ...
families. The most commonly found fish remains at Kilu Cave came from sharks. The shell assemblage was dominated by ''
Nerita undata ''Nerita undata'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Neritidae. ;Synonyms: * ''Nerita undata quadricolor'' Gmelin, 1791: synonym of '' Nerita quadricolor'' Gmelin, 1791 * ''Nerita undata var. micronesica'' E. ...
'' and ''
Nerita plicata ''Nerita plicata'' is a species of tropical sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Neritidae, the nerites. This species is found throughout the Indo-West Pacific. Characteristics The ''Nerita plicata'' is characterized by its 30&n ...
''. Several extinct species were discovered at Kilu Cave. The extinction and extirpation of various bird and mammalian fauna on Baku Island appeared to coincide with the arrival of the
Lapita culture The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. They are believed to have originated from the northern Philipp ...
. 77 bird bones were recovered from the site. The bones came from 18 different species of landbirds, 7 of which are unspecified or now extinct and 11 of which are now extirpated from Buka Island. Five species of rat endemic to the Solomon Islands were identified. Two new species of rat, ''
Solomys spriggsarum The Buka Island solomys (''Solomys spriggsarum''), also known as the Buka naked-tailed rat or Buka Island naked-tailed rat, is an extinct species of rodent known only from subfossil remains. This species occurred on Buka Island, the second largest ...
'' and '' Melomys spechti'', were identified from fossil remains at Kilu Cave.


Archaeobotany

Kilu Cave is currently the only site in
Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...
with evidence for plant use by the initial inhabitants of the region. The presence of
taro Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Africa ...
starch grains were discovered on 17 of the lithic tools from the Pleistocene layer at Kilu Cave. Two types of taro were discovered at Kilu Cave, ''
Colocasia ''Colocasia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to southeastern Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Some species are widely cultivated and naturalized in other tropical and subtropical regions. The names elephant-ear ...
'' and ''
Alocasia ''Alocasia'' is a genus of rhizomatous or tuberous, broad-leaved, perennial, flowering plants from the family Araceae. There are about 90 accepted species native to tropical and subtropical Asia and eastern Australia. Around the world, many growe ...
'', with 14 tools identified with the former and 3 with the latter. The people of Kilu Cave also appeared to have used galip nut (''
Canarium ''Canarium'' is a genus of about 100 species of tropical and subtropical trees, in the family Burseraceae. They grow naturally across tropical Africa, south and southeast Asia, Indochina, Malesia, Australia and western Pacific Islands; inclu ...
'': ''Canarium indicum'' and '' Canarium solomonense'') and coconut (''
Cocos nucifera The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...
'') as resources.


Artefacts

The artefact assemblage at Kilu Cave consists primarily of simple flaked tools made from volcanic rock (~ 80% of all artefacts), quartz,
calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...
and
chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...
. 214 such artefacts were discovered at the site; most of these lithic artefacts (200) came from the Pleistocene layer. Shell artefacts were also recovered from the site. Shell artefacts made from ''
Turbo marmoratus ''Turbo marmoratus'', known as the green turban, the marbled turban or great green turban, is a large species of marine gastropod with a thick calcareous operculum in the family Turbinidae, the turban snails.WoRMS (2012). ''Turbo marmoratus'' ...
'' were found in the Pleistocene layer, while shell artefacts made from ''
Terebralia palustris ''Terebralia palustris'', common name the giant mangrove whelk, is a species of brackish-water snail, a gastropod mollusk in the family (biology), family Potamididae. This tropical species which inhabits mangrove environments of the Indo-West Pa ...
'' and ''
Tridacna ''Tridacna'' is a genus of large saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the subfamily Tridacninae, the giant clams. They have heavy shells, fluted with 4 to 6 folds. The mantle is brightly coloured. They inhabit shallow waters of coral re ...
'' were found in the Holocene layer. Perforated shark teeth were also found in the Holocene layer. 44 pottery sherds were discovered in the upper layers of the site and typed to the Buka phase of the Lapita culture.


Citations


References

* * * * * * * {{Navbox prehistoric caves Archaeological sites in Papua New Guinea Buka, Papua New Guinea Caves of Papua New Guinea