Exotic ceramics from the Murray Islands, Eastern Torres Strait

Abstract

The discovery of Lapita-decorated ceramics in the Massim region and southern Papua New Guinea coast, along with finds of pottery on Jiigurru (Lizard Island) in the Great Barrier Reef and in the Torres Strait demonstrates the presence of seaborne movements in the Coral Sea as early as ∼ 2900–2500 cal. BP (Ulm et al. 2024). As an introduced Austronesian technology, ceramics are central to archaeological understandings of early maritime routes and cross-cultural relationships between Island Southeast Asians, Papuan peoples, and Indigenous Australians. In the Torres Strait only a small number of pot sherds have been reported. Those found in the western islands were probably made using local materials, while the ceramics from eastern islands have been sourced to southern Papua New Guinea (Carter, 2004, Carter, et al., 2004). In this paper, petrographic examination of sherd tempers recently recovered from the Eastern Torres Strait islands of Dauar and Waier indicate derivation from the Purari River basin in southern New Guinea. A distinct granitic temper sherd dated to ∼ 2600 cal. BP differs from known sherd tempers and likely originates from the Western Torres Strait. The provenance of this granitic sherd is consistent with the early movement of ceramic-making groups along the south New Guinea coast and into the Torres Strait, and with the ability of these groups to make long-distance passages in the Arafura and Coral Seas.