35,000-YEAR-OLD SITES IN THE RAIN-FORESTS OF WEST NEW-BRITAIN, PAPUA-NEW-GUINEA

The growing story of early settlement in the northwest Pacific islands is moving from coastal sites into the rainforest. Evidence of Pleisto cene cultural layers have been discovered in open-site excavations at Yombon, an area containing shifting hamlets, in West New Britain's int erior tropical rainforest. These sites, the oldest in New Britain, may presently stand as the oldest open sites discovered in rainforest any where in the world.