Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (3.1976/1979)

FURTHER NOTES ON PREHISTORIC
WOODEN SPADES FROM
THE NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS
By
Pawel Piotr Gorecki


Fig. i. The first archaeologically recovered
double-ended spade in New Guinea, 197 cm long.
Photo P. P. G.
Der erste auf archaologischem Wege gefundene
Doppelpaddel-Spaten in Neuguinea, 197 cm lang.

This paper deals with the first double-ended
spade recovered archaeologically in Papua
New Guinea (fig. 1) and with the domestic use
of spades in the New Guinea Highlands.
Descriptions and studies of gardening im-
plements since the first European contact in
the New Guinea Highlands give us a wide
view of the use and importance of gardening
implements in the economic life of the High-
landers: amongst others, Flint in the Sambe-
rigi valley (1922, 149), Leahy (1934, 1-7) and
Father Ross (1936, 341-63), in the Wahgi val-
ley, Williams in the Mount Hagen area (1937,
114), Nilles in the Bismarck ranges (1942,
205-12). The recent discoveries of prehistoric
gardening implements and agricultural sy-
stems in the Wahgi (Powell 1970, Golson
1977, 601-38) and their similarities to the eth-
nographic descriptions (Powell 1974, 21-8;
Golson 1978) convey a strong impression of
the continuity in the use af similar wooden
implements in that area. All the authors agree
that wooden spades were one of the major
implements used for gardening. A typology
has been published by Powell for the Mount
Hagen area:
»At least five types of implement can be
distinguished, namely the large spatulate spade
(with blade tapering to handle or angled to it), the
smaller paddle-shaped spade, the short handled
hastate spade, the large and the small diameter
pointed digging sticks.® (Powell 1974, 21).
This typology could well be extended to the
whole New Guinea Highlands, and as far as