Crowther, Alison, Michael Haslam (School of Social Science, University of Queensland) and Robin Torrence (Australian Museum, Sydney)

Mumu: Residue Analysis of Ethnographic and Archaeological Cooking Stones from Papua New Guinea

Cooking using heated rocks in an enclosed earth oven (known as mumu in Papua New Guinea) has been documented ethnographically throughout the island Pacific. Archaeological examples of fire-cracked stones attributed to this form of food preparation have been found in contexts dating back to the Pleistocene in PNG. Identification of cooking stones archaeologically has traditionally been based on stone raw material and/or evidence of heating. The aim of this study was to augment current techniques by developing relevant microscopic residue analysis criteria, both to confirm the use of possible cooking stones and to identify the food cooked in archaeological mumus. Aspects of ethnographic, replicative and archaeological cooking stones were examined.

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