About PPA

Introduction

This blog was inspired by a publicly accessible website which shares the historical culture of Guam and the Mariana Islands (guampedia). A community led online project to bring thoughtful pieces of archaeology and history together so that anyone can learn about the history of that region. In a format which is similar to a published journal paper with references, written by experts in the field. It is useful for members of the public to read and learn about history, and also for students or academics to access.

Our aims

This blog hopes to present information to the public about archaeology in the Pacific which is easy to understand, as well as being interesting and informative to the reader. Often information has been held behind paywalls that only the elite can access, which is problematic for archaeology in the Pacific when we as archaeologists are using someone else's material culture to write these histories.

Starting off as a blog, there will be articles looking at the basic introductions to archaeology of each Pacific region, as well as further afield in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and other parts of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA). Blogs posts will look at a variety of different perspectives when it comes to writing the history of the Pacific.

The first types of posts I plan to upload to this blog will focus on the first 50,000 years of human occupation of this vast region, on a continent known as Sahul (modern-day Papua New Guinea and Australia/Tasmania). Eventually, leading on to the event of Austronesian expansion and how this changed everything!

This blog will start of with just me, Arthur Grainger, outlining the history of current archaeological history of the whole Pacific, before guest posts will be encouraged to contribute, and to raise our awareness of PPA. It is hoped that in time our team might grow.

The Types of Contributions we will be after:

• Perspectives from Indigenous peoples about a wide range of topics from perspectives on archaeology to how they construct their own histories through their own oral traditions.
• Archaeologists specialising in particular things or parts of the Pacific
• Other experts in disciplines which contribute to understanding the history of the Pacific.
• Anyone that has something interesting to add to the public awareness of Pacific archaeology

Final Comments

I encourage comments and feedback for this blog as we grow! And share us with anyone you think who would enjoy these topics or who would like to contribute to this blog.