Kuk Swamp
* This name is listed on the World Heritage List. ª The region is classified by UNESCO.
The Historic agricultural landscape of Kuk ( Kuk Early Agricultural Site ) is an archaeological site in the swamp region Kuk, in the southern highlands of New Guinea island. The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO declared the area in 2008 under the name Historic agricultural landscape of Kuk to the first World Heritage Site of Papua New Guinea.
Location
The historic agricultural landscape of Kuk is located in the southern highlands of New Guinea island, in the Papua New Guinea - province of the Western Highlands. The site is located 12 km north-east from Mount Hagen in the Upper Wahgital, one of the largest valleys of the mountainous region north of Kuborgebirges, at an altitude of 1550 m above sea level.
Research
The archaeological site on the grounds of the former, as Agricultural Research Station ( Kuk Agricultural Research Station) used in the tea plantation Wahgital was discovered by the Australian archaeologist Jim Allen in 1969. From 1972 to 1977, Jack Golson of the Australian National University at the archaeological site at Kuk Swamp extensive archaeological investigations. 1998 and 1999 were excavations and research of a team of scientists led by Tim Denham from the Archaeological Institute of Australia's Flinders University, that the country was going through, probably even ordered in the last 10,000 years since 7000. During the excavations, the researchers found traces of slash and burn and individual planting holes, which have been dated to an age of about 10,000 years. They also found evidence of 7000 years old fields and networks of drainage ditches, which were created about 4,000 years ago. Plant remains showed that mainly taro, sugar cane and bananas were planted. Traces of Tarostärke were on the working edges of three stone tools. Through the analysis of phytoliths Denham's team showed that banana species Musa ingens and Musa acuminata in the 5th millennium BC were first cultivated in the region Kuk.
Importance
The highlands of Papua New Guinea is one of the few places in the world where agriculture arose independently of other cultures. The well-preserved archaeological finds prove the technological leap from the use of plants for agriculture 6,500 years ago. Until now, many scientists had assumed that the crop was brought from other parts of Asia to New Guinea. " The findings in Kuk confirm that Guinea before any known Southeast Asian influence was a primary center agrikultureller developments and plant cultivation " said Tim Denham. Kuk is one of the few archaeological sites in the world that allow for such a long period to draw conclusions about practice and development of agricultural techniques.
2006 nominated Papua New Guinea, the agricultural landscape of Kuk for inclusion in the World Heritage List. The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO, at its 32nd session from 2 to July 10, 2008 in Quebec City, Canada, an area of 116 ha under the name Historic agricultural landscape of Kuk to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Population
The local population of the tribe of the area Kawelka had given up and left in 1910 after the defeat in a tribal war. All signs of previous management were hidden under a thick sward. 1968 leased the clan chiefs of Kawelka the swamp for 99 years to the Australian civil administration of the UN Trust Territory of Papua and New Guinea mandate. The Australian Department of Agriculture Department of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries ( DASF ) founded 1969, Kuk Tea Research Station, which soon expanded their research to other crops, and was renamed in Kuk Agricultural Research Station. The drainage work on the extension of the cultivated land in the late 1960s and early 1970s caused only minor disturbances of the Fund place. After the closure of the research station in the early 1990s, members of the tribe of Kawelka returned and built on the territory of the former plantation again sweet potatoes, bananas and coffee. They committed themselves voluntarily to protect the archaeological sites to keep certain areas of uncultivated and reduce the management in other areas.