Several millennia of human-mediated translocation of non-native pig species (genus Sus) to the islands of Wallacea and Oceania have considerably altered local ecosystems. To investigate the timing and trajectory of these introductions, we conducted both genomic analyses of 576 pig nuclear genomes and a geometric morphometric analysis of 708 modern and ancient dental remains. Our analyses demonstrate that free-living and domestic pigs in Wallacea and Oceania have diverse ancestries resulting from the introduction of multiple sequential pig populations followed by gene flow. Despite the variability in their genomic ancestry, these pigs all have a distinct tooth morphology as well as a genetic link to the Chinese domestic pig populations that accompanied the dispersal of Austronesian language speakers ~4000 to 3000 years ago via Taiwan and the Philippines.

Food insecurity is a major global concern. This study used the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) to assess food insecurity and its drivers among communities living inside (Group 1) and outside (Group 2) protected areas in Cambodia. Ordinal logistic regression showed that households with higher education levels, non-Indigenous heads, residence outside protected areas, no wild food plant collection, and medium to high incomes were more food secure. Overall, only 11.40% of households were food secure, with Group 2 showing 11.55% higher food security than Group 1. Achieving zero hunger by 2030 in Cambodia will require urgent, targeted policy interventions, particularly for Indigenous people and communities within protected areas.

Shifting cultivation is a widespread agricultural practice in the wet tropical forests of the world, as well as other environments. Short-term cultivation followed by long-term fallow is a human adaptation to the low fertility of soils under tropical forests. Forms of shifting cultivation are likely to be ancient and among the earliest agricultural practices. Here, a multi-disciplinary method for the investigation of shifting cultivation in the past is outlined. The method is grounded in direct archaeological evidence and palaeo-pedological evidence for soil formation processes associated with cultivation practices, which are interwoven with contextual palaeoecological and geomorphological evidence for landscape transformation. Hence, these multi-disciplinary lines of evidence are recast to assess whether a short period of use of a c. 10,000 year-old palaeosurface at Kuk Swamp in montane Papua New Guinea represents shifting cultivation or alternative types of plant exploitation in the past.

Arguably, archaeological discourses on plant domestication have tended to be normative, linear and teleological. They often seek the emergence of specific phenotypic and, increasingly, genotypic traits through time. These temporal reconstructions of plant domestication foreground certain lineages of a crop, yet they simultaneously background an array of crop wild relatives and locally important cultivars and cultiwilds that existed through time and from which the major domesticate lineages arose. Consequently, a vast diversity of plants and associated historical biogeographies, as well as the people who cultivated them, have been marginalised from archaeological reconstructions of the past.

MicroCT analysis of archaeological parenchyma fragments has identified Aboriginal exploitation of underground storage organs (USOs) at Birriwilk rockshelter, Arnhem Land, northern Australia. A variety of USO types were identified from late Holocene contexts, including bulbs/corms, dicotyledon primary/tap roots and monocotyledon stem tubers. The range of USOs exploited is consistent with ethnographic accounts of plant exploitation practices by Aboriginal communities in this region. Although lacking taxonomic specificity, these results demonstrate the value of using microCT to investigate charred archaeological parenchyma in order to understand past human use of soft-tissue, plant storage organs.

Despite the central role of lithic analysis within Highland Papua New Guinean archaeology, geochemical characterisation studies are deeply underutilised in the region, especially where Pleistocene and informally flaked assemblages are concerned. This paper presents the geochemical characterisation of the flaked volcanic assemblage and an edge-ground axe from the stratified Nombe site in the Papua New Guinea highlands (25,500 cal BP - present), establishing continuous exploitation of the same raw material types throughout the entirety of the site's occupation. Similar analysis of an excavated non-local jade (nephrite) artefact demonstrates down-the-line, long distance transport of stone sometime between 5600 and 0 cal BP. The geochemical analyses of the locally acquired igneous artefacts and the non-local jade axe-adze flake technological strategies continued during the region's incorporation into broader social networks during the Holocene.

Human mediated translocation of non-native pig species (genus Sus ) to the islands of Wallacea and Oceania has significantly altered local ecosystems. To investigate the timing and trajectory of these introductions, we conducted both genomic analyses of 576 pig nuclear genomes and a geometric morphometric analysis of 714 modern and ancient dental remains. Our analyses demonstrate that feral and domestic pigs in Wallacea and Oceania possess diverse ancestries resulting from the introduction of multiple, sequential pig populations followed by gene flow. Despite the variability in their genomic ancestry these pigs all possess a distinct tooth morphology, and a genetic link to the Chinese domestic pig populations that accompanied the dispersal of Austronesian language speakers ∼4,000-3,000 years ago via Taiwan and the Philippines. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Two commensal pathways to plant domestication-ruderal and segetal-have been proposed. These domestication pathways are detailed here, together with associated archaeobotanical morphometric data for multiple crops within each pathway. The ruderal pathway characterizes how plants adapted to anthropically disturbed habitats, which can be associated with foraging or farming communities, were domesticated by people. Ruderal crops discussed are squash (Cucurbita pepo), aji chili (Capsicum baccatum) and melon (Cucumis melo). The segetal pathway characterizes how weeds in agricultural contexts became crops. Segetal crops discussed are rye (Secale cereale) and kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum). Metric archaeobotanical datasets are used to infer the domestication episode for crops and to calculate rates of change in domestication traits (Haldanes). Although metric archaeobotanical data limits presentation and discussion to seeds, it enables quantitative comparisons of domestication episodes and haldane rates with those of the grain and fruit tree domestication pathways, respectively. We conclude that early ruderals underwent slower domestication processes, whereas segetals and perhaps some later ruderals, underwent faster processes of domestication that probably involved conscious selection.This article is part of the theme issue 'Unravelling domestication: multi-disciplinary perspectives on human and non-human relationships in the past, present and future'.

In the Eastern Torres Strait, a multi-proxy approach combining micro- and macro-scale geoarchaeological techniques has been applied at Ormi (Dauar Island), an archaeological midden site dating from 2600-2250 cal. BP. This study combines soil micromorphology with particle size analysis and geochemical analyses (Carbon/Nitrogen ratios; Total Phosphorus (Pt) and Portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF)) to assess integrity of the deposits. The geoarchaeological analyses provide new insights into site formation processes, while microscopic analyses on paleosols allow settlement chronologies (including those associated with pottery) to be refined.

Cultivation pits represented the principal form of horticultural features developed by past atoll communities in Central-East Polynesia (CEP), and they are still utilised on some atolls in Oceania. The majority of information about the use of cultivation pits in CEP derives from ethnographic and preliminary archaeological investigations. The lack of excavations with rigorous stratigraphic sampling and analyses has constrained the recovery of environmental information associated with these agro-technical features. Using a combination of geoarchaeological techniques, including field observations, physico-chemical analyses and soil micromorphology, this study focuses on sedimentary deposits from a cultivation pit (MAITE-01) on Teti'aroa atoll, in the Society Islands. We demonstrate how micro-geoarchaeological investigations can advance research and offer new interpretations to study past human interactions within environments long considered "lost causes" to detailed archaeostratigraphic interpretation. High-resolution geoarchaeological techniques reveal details about pit construction and provide indirect evidence of the integration of human-animal interaction into the horticultural system. Les fosses de culture repr & eacute;sentent la principale forme d'am & eacute;nagement horticole d & eacute;velopp & eacute;e par les anciennes communaut & eacute;s install & eacute;es sur les atolls de Polyn & eacute;sie centre-orientale (PCO). Cette technique horticole est toujours pratiqu & eacute;e sur certains atolls d'Oc & eacute;anie. La majorit & eacute; des connaissances sur l'utilisation des fosses de culture en PCO proviennent d'enqu & ecirc;tes ethnographiques et d'& eacute;tudes arch & eacute;ologiques pr & eacute;liminaires. L'absence de fouilles, d'& eacute;chantillonnage et d'analyse stratigraphique rigoureux ont fortement restreint notre compr & eacute;hension des informations environnementales associ & eacute;es & agrave; ces sp & eacute;cificit & eacute;s agrotechniques. En s'appuyant sur une combinaison de techniques g & eacute;oarch & eacute;ologiques, incluant des observations de terrain, des analyses physico-chimiques et de micromorphologie des sols, cette & eacute;tude se concentre sur les d & eacute;p & ocirc;ts s & eacute;dimentaires d'une fosse de culture (MAITE-01) sur l'atoll de Teti'aroa, dans les & icirc;les de la Soci & eacute;t & eacute;. Nous d & eacute;montrons comment les investigations micro-g & eacute;oarch & eacute;ologiques peuvent faire progresser la recherche sur ce sujet et proposer de nouvelles interpr & eacute;tations pour & eacute;tudier les interactions humaines pass & eacute;es dans des environnements longtemps consid & eacute;r & eacute;s comme des << causes perdues >> sans interpr & eacute;tation arch & eacute;ostratigraphique possible. Les techniques g & eacute;oarch & eacute;ologiques & agrave; haute r & eacute;solution portent aujourd'hui un nouveau regard sur la construction de telles fosses et t & eacute;moignent indirectement des interactions homme-animal ainsi que de leur int & eacute;gration dans le syst & egrave;me horticole traditionnel.

In this chapter, a prospective role for archaeology in contributing to the future conservation of tropical rainforests and the ongoing cultural survival of the human communities who live within them is sketched. Archaeology provides specific information on the ways people have lived within tropical rainforest environments through time and how they helped create these cultural landscapes. Archaeology complements paleoecological reconstructions by providing highly targeted and multifaceted information on past cultural practices. Thereby, archaeological information contributes to: the characterization of human-ecosystem interactions in the past; the assessment of corresponding biodiversity implications, including the threefold character of deforestation (disturbance, degradation, and denudation); and the formulation of dynamic baselines and temporal depth for contemporary management. These themes are developed with respect to the New Guinea region, comparatively drawing on other regions with extensive tracts of tropical rainforest. The intention is to explore the ways archaeological information about the past can be repurposed to address sustainability goals into the future.

The archaeology of the island of New Guinea is ancient and surprising, yet it is highly fragmentary in space and time. Consequently, archaeology pro-vides only local and fleeting glimpses of social life in the distant past. In this review, we consider several key themes, such as initial colonization at least55,000 years ago, the emergence of agriculture by at least 7,000-6,400 years ago, and social diversification in the last few thousand years. We build our discussions around robust archaeological records that convey a coherent im-pression of what people were doing in the past. We also highlight the way sin which archaeology can be repurposed to address contemporary issues, including social and environmental problems, and flag how a distinctive NewGuinean archaeology could be rooted in a vegecultural conception of social life and time.

Societal Impact Statement Sugarcane ( Saccharum cvs.) is one of the most important cash crops globally. Related varieties and species of cane grasses of the genus Saccharum are also important subsistence crops in the Indo‐Pacific region. Despite the significance of these crops globally and recent advances in genetic characterisation, the histories and geographies of domestication are poorly understood. A scenario for the geodomestication of sugarcane is proposed to highlight the diversity of Saccharum species and their significance for future proofing sugarcane. The historical agrobiodiversity of cane grasses, together with practices of cultivation, uses and associated forms of practical and symbolic knowledge, provide culturally appropriate bases for crop improvement. Summary An historical scenario for the domestication of sugarcane ( Saccharum cvs.) is proposed based on a literary review of a range of agronomic, archaeobotanical, archaeological, genetic, historical, linguistic and phytogeographic sources. The proposed scenario outlines a protracted, multistage domestication process for the extended period before the directed breeding programmes that led to the development of modern commercial cultivars over the last 100 years or so. First, the initial management, cultivation and translocation of Saccharum robustum within the circum‐New Guinea region produced cultiwilds (viz., morphogenetically wild plants cultivated and translocated by people) and, arguably, some S. robustum cultivars. Second, the spontaneous generation of sugar‐rich pith in some S. robustum plants and subsequent anthropic selection led to the development of ‘domesticated’ Saccharum officinarum within the circum‐New Guinea region. Third, the dispersal under cultivation of S. officinarum cultivars brought them into contact with wild‐type Saccharum spontaneum populations around the Indo‐Pacific, which led to the development of sugarcane ( S. officinarum × spontaneum ) hybrids that were subsequently cultivated and selected vegetatively. These ancient hybrids Saccharum barberi and Saccharum sinense became regionally important in India and China, respectively. Although much research has focussed on clarifying the Saccharum lineages directly contributing to the major commercial sugarcane cultivar lineages, such a teleological interpretation misses a vast range of agrobiodiversity in terms of the plants ( S. robustum , S. officinarum , S. barberi , S. sinense and S . cvs.); domestication status (wild, cultiwild and domestic); and, practices (associated with cultivation, use and traditional knowledge) in the past. The diversity of plants and practices in the past provides the historical backdrop against which any linear interpretation of sugarcane domestication should be understood. This historical reconstruction of domestication processes draws attention to this agrobiodiversity, which can inform breeding programmes seeking to diversify and improve sugarcane cultivars for commercial and subsistence agriculture into the future.

FIELD GRAND CHALLENGE article Front. Environ. Archaeol., 12 February 2024 Volume 3 - 2024 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fearc.2024.1365794

In the highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), tephras are key chronostratigraphic markers for archaeological and palaeoenvironmental studies. Here, mid-Late-Holocene tephras are geochemically fingerprinted and correlated across seventeen sites in PNG. This enables the first regional scale assessment of the distribution of these tephras, with implications for both assessing eruption magnitude and interpreting site stratigraphy. In the past, stratigraphic relationships have been key to much of the tephra identification done in PNG. Fingerprinting presented here shows that tephras may be either locally or regionally absent, as a result of poor preservation or regional distribution patterns, reinforcing the need for geochemical identification. Fingerprinting has also allowed tephras to be correlated with their source volcano. In a number of cases (e.g. Kuning and Mun tephras), this has enabled significant refinement of tephra ages, as source eruptions have been accurately dated using charcoal in proximal pyroclastic sequences. This has significant implications for regional archaeological and palaeoenvironmental studies. Of the six regionally widespread tephras emplaced over the last 4-5 ka in PNG, four are sourced from either Long Island or Karkar volcanoes in the western Bismarck Arc, while two are the result of eruptions from Dakataua and Witori volcanoes in New Britain. Discovery on the PNG mainland of tephras sourced from New Britain significantly increases the known distribution of products from these eruptions, suggesting current evaluations of eruption magnitude may be underestimates.

Archaeobotanical investigations at three riverine shell midden sites dating to the early Holocene - Baozitou, Shichuantou and Nabeizui - in the Yongjiang River Basin, Guangxi, southern China have identified charred fragments of archaeological parenchyma. A subset of the archaeological parenchyma was assessed using X-ray micro-computed tomography (microCT), which enabled virtual histological examination of the interior of parenchyma fragments. The microCT scanning identified a fragment of lotus root (Nelumbo nucifera), a possible immature fig fruit (poss. Ficus sp.), cooked food fragments, and less diagnostic elements, some of which derive from underground storage organs (USOs), including a bud/bulb and potentially an aroid. The fragment of lotus root from Nabeizui was directly radiocarbon dated using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry to 8770-8544 cal BP. A new AMS radiocarbon chronology based on Canarium nutshells for the three sites indicates that they were all used during the early Holocene. These findings contribute to the understanding of broad spectrum plant use by hunter-gatherer-fisher communities in southern China during the early Holocene, as well as showing the potential of microCT imaging for the analysis of archaeological parenchyma from this region.

ABSTRACT In this review of the Dark Emu debate we start out by summarising Bruce Pascoe's original work and Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe's critique. However, the majority of this contribution is to place this Australian‐focussed debate into broader conceptual, methodological and evidential contexts generally associated with the investigation of early agriculture in other parts of the world. If we are to apply the term “agriculture” to Aboriginal plant management practices, then this requires a global, rather than a continental‐centric comparative perspective. We argue debates regarding the character of plant exploitation practices on the Australian mainland, including whether they included forms of agriculture or experimental horticulture, have been hindered by a lack of terminological clarity, the absence of a methodological framework to assess empirically verifiable evidence, and – even more problematically – a lack of relevant data on the putative plants and practices involved. Here, terminology is clarified and a bottom‐up, practice‐based method is advocated for the assessment of recent (using oral, visual and written histories) and ancient (using archaeological, archaeobotanical and palaeoecological evidence) forms of food plant exploitation in Australia. The terminology and methodological framework are heuristically applied to three scenarios: (1) ethnographic and historical records for the exploitation of underground storage organs (USOs) on the Australian mainland; (2) historical documentation regarding the botany, potential human roles in dispersal, and Aboriginal exploitation of banana ( Musa spp.), taro ( Colocasia esculenta ) and greater yam ( Dioscorea alata ) in northern Australia and (3) archaeobotanical evidence for the exploitation of USOs and other plants from The Top End.

Archaeological investigations have documented an ideological and occupied frontier in the Lower Tagali Valley along the southern margins of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Open-area excavations document two types of house structure associated with Huli occupation of the Lower Tagali Valley landscape, a women's house ( wandia ) and a lodge and ceremonial complex associated with a bachelor cult ( ibagiyaanda) . Excavation revealed the complete floor plan of the women's house site and multiple structural elements of the ceremonial complex. Radiocarbon dating provides a chronology for both sites that accords with genealogical histories for the colonization of this landscape by Huli during the early nineteenth century, or approximately eight generations ago. These archaeological findings are consistent with the strategies still employed today by Huli in the initial ideological incorporation of new territory and anchoring of expansionary claims through subsequent settlement and cultivation.