Work

Multi-directional exchange and south-to-north transport of lithic material to Ormi, Eastern Torres Strait, 2600 years ago

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Current archaeological understandings of cross-cultural relationships and exchange between Papuan peoples, Indigenous Australians and later Austronesian speaking arrivals to the Coral Sea region are heavily grounded in the north-to-south movement and uptake of distinctive introduced technologies such as ceramics. As a result, we have limited visibility on ancient Indigenous social networks and innovations and are at risk of inadvertently echoing outdated diffusionist arguments about culture contact in the region. Conversely, linguistic and ethno-historical data attests to the agency and active involvement of Torres Strait Islanders and Cape York Aboriginal people in these exchanges, while undated stone axes from the Fly River delta in southern Papua New Guinea evidence south-to-north transport of material. Here we present the combined petrographic and geochemical analysis of a lithic assemblage from Ormi, in the Eastern Torres Strait, approximately 200 km northeast of the northernmost tip of mainland Australia (Cape York). Our results demonstrate maritime transport of exotic material from the far southwestern Torres Strait and / or Cape York to the site by ∼2600 cal BP. This is currently the oldest securely dated evidence for south-to-north material transport between cultural groups that we are aware of and demonstrates that influences from the far southwestern Torres Strait / Cape York were central to regional developments in the Eastern Torres Strait.

Source: Journal of Archaeological Science Reports

DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.105959