Ancient site · Earthwork
Kuk Swamp
Also known as Kuk Early Agricultural Site
Kuk Swamp lies in the Wahgi Valley of the Papua New Guinea highlands, about 1,550 metres above sea level. Excavations found drainage ditches dug from about 9,000 years ago to turn wetland into gardens for taro, and evidence that bananas and sugar cane were cultivated from about 6,900–6,400 years ago.
It is one of the few places in the world where people invented farming independently, without borrowing crops from elsewhere. UNESCO listed it in 2008. The Kawelka people farm the area today.
- Dates
- drainage from c. 7000 BCE (about 9,000 years ago)
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- UNESCO World Heritage
- Yes
- Location
- 5.78° S, 144.33° E
How we know
No writing existed; the buried ditches and plant remains were dated by radiocarbon.
Nearby sites
- Nan Madol megalithic building from c. 1180–1200 CE; capital until c. 1628 (later than this atlas's ancient period)
- Lapita type site (Site 13, Foué) dated to c. 800 BCE
- Teouma c. 1100–900 BCE (about 3,000 years old)
- Kutai yūpa inscriptions second half of the 4th century CE
- Manunggul Cave (Tabon Caves) Manunggul Jar c. 890–710 BCE
- Murujuga rock art engravings from c. 45,000 years ago onward