Megaliths of Muyuw (Woodlark Island), Milne Bay Province, PNG

Archaeological survey on Muyuw (Woodlark Island) in the Massim area of Papua New Guinea located a number of stone arrangements, commonly known as megaliths. Test excavations have revealed the use of the stone arrangements as burial structures. The Muyuw data show a complex pattern of changing internal relationships and regional political relationships. The presence of stone arrangements in all the major islands of the northern Massim (and possibly beyond), hints at a shared regional symbolic system for dealing with the dead, and organising labour for public work. Stone arrangements form a complex Early Period (~1500BP–600BP) landscape built for the dead to negotiate relationships between the living throughout the northern Massim. Yet by 600 BP, this landscape had probably lost its symbolic potency. These sites are discussed in relation to the prehistory of the island and the region as a whole.