Small But Bitey: Taxonomic Identifications of Faunivorous Marsupials at Watinglo, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea

Phoebe Barnes*, Shimona Kealy, and Sue O'Connor

School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University, Australia; *phoebe.barnes@anu.edu.au

Faunivorous marsupials (Peramelidae and Dasyuridae) remain largely overlooked in zooarchaeological discussions of human subsistence and ritual practices, primarily due to a variety of methodological, geographic, and practical challenges. These challenges are compounded when exploring the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene periods, a key phase of ecological and environmental transformation in northern Sahul. Watinglo is an archaeological site on the north coast of Papua New Guinea that preserves an extensive and diverse faunal assemblage, including a comparatively substantial number of faunivorous marsupials. This paper explores the role of faunivorous marsupials within their broader archaeological, taxonomic, ecological, and ethnographic contexts. The results from this project provide a unique opportunity to understand the diversity of animals present in the region and how people interacted with them over the past ~46,000 years. These findings also contribute to a deeper understanding of human-environment relationships and the role of faunivorous marsupials in human subsistence strategies and responses to a shifting environment.