| Abstract: |
The Anthropology Department of the University of Hawaii Manoa began archaeological research in eastern Indonesia in July 1975. The first year's programme was a survey along the coast in areas where limestone formations were present where caves would easily be found. Two sites were located on Lake Sentatni, one a burial site probably around 400 years old, the other with carved megaliths of unknown age. Several recent sites were found on islands in Genderawasih Bay, including a burial ledge used until the early 1930s which produced over a dozen wooden korwar, a variety of ancestral figures. A major area of rock paintings was discovered on the coast west of Kaimana. Two major sites were found, one at Makbon near the western end of the Bird's Head and the other in caves near Kaimana on the south coast. Both sites produced considerable earthenware pottery unlike anything previously reported from Indonesia. The Makbon site was tested during the second season in 1990. This season included survey and testing sites on Ternate and the northwestern arm of Halmahera, in the northern Moluccas. Again the recovered earthenware pottery was not closely related to any known pottery. A multi-disciplinary research programme focusing on understanding the culture, ecology and development of the sago palm in eastern Indonesia was begun in 1992. The archaeological portion of this programme has surveyed and made excavations on Buru, Seram and Ambon. Finally, in 1994 an ongoing anthropological and archaeological training programme for Cambodian and University of Hawaii students was started at Angkor Borei, southern Cambodia.
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