West Papua V – Echoes of the Stone Age

When Heinrich Harrer finally walked into ‘the stone age’ at Jae-Li-Me after a long period of effort and danger from both the extreme environment and some hostile villages he described it as one of the most striking moments of his travelling life.

In a region which has gone from cannibalism to Rolling Stones t-shirts and hundreds of missionary airstrips in a generation it was uncertain what we might find, if anything, once we got to the Jae river region.

In his book, Harrer describes one particular quarry site for stone axes, however the stone axe rock that makes this area so special is actually spread through the Jae valley from an altitude of 900m or more down the mountains to 200-300m in the river valley below. There are at least four villages in the stone axe area, mostly Vano people at higher elevations but Dubre are also present in the river valley.

Life is changing fast for these people, a grass airstrip relatively nearby has recently been extended and the goverment is funding construction of rather incongruous clusters of timber and tile ‘beach bungalow’ like houses to replace traditional huts amongst other projects. In this changing life, while the old knowledge remains, the production of stone axes is becoming a thing of the past, replaced of course by metal blades and other more modern innovations.

During our stay in the region we were fortunate to see how axe stone was quarried in a location near the Jae river as shown in the photostory below. Looking beyond the bermuda shorts now becoming common and the echoes of the famous photographs from Harrer’s first pioneering visit can still be seen. For how long these traditions remain in such a fast changing world and what will in the end replace them in this region at the limits of the modern world remains an open and difficult question.

The famous stone axe rock is found most commonly in the upper areas of the beautiful Jae river region.

The river becomes a raging torrent in some parts, and without permanent bridges, if you need one, you have to build it. The objective here was to get to work on the large rock on the left far side.

Having selected a quarry site, a wooden scaffold has to be built up to the rockface.

Rattan vine (as likely used in your garden furniture) is used to hold the scaffolding together. It has to support maybe 300kg load.

Not only does it hold the scaffolding together, but rattan also starts the fire. Note the coil on the left side - a lead from this is pulled back and forth fast across a piece of dry wood to set dry leaves on fire.

The burning leaves are taken to the top of the scaffolding where a fire has been laid on top of a bed of flat stones to insulate the heat from the wooden scaffold below.

The fire is the built up with larger pieces of wood from the surrounding jungle and riverbanks.

The fire is set as close as possible to the rockface as the aim is to heat the rockface so much it cracks and pieces fall off.

Once the fire is set, the waiting begins.

It can take several days and more than one 'heat and cool' cycle to really make an impression on the rock.

Sooner or later loud popping noises will be heard as fissures open in the rock. If they are large enough to see they may be given a helping hand to weaken the rock.

With luck, the fissures may extend deep into the rock, especially if the fire is focussed on a relatively narrow 'neck' of rock.

With little warning and an enormous crash a large piece of rock fell off, destroying the scaffold and sending up a cloud of burning debris, ash and stone dust.

People move in quickly to hit the rock with other stones and sticks and cool down the hot fragments in the nearby river water before they begin to try and shape them into useful blades. Note the shaping occuring with blows to the blade stone in the upper left.

Part of the process of shaping is to take out any weak areas of stone or faults within the fragment. Shaping can take days, and few fragments will deliver good natural blades.

Once a blade is obtained the intended usage determines the final stages of the process. For rough jobs the blade may remain in its native form, however for finer purposes the blade must now be polished for up to several months before it is truly finished.

This was the last post in our series on West Papua. We hope you have enjoyed them and also note that many interesting areas and peoples of Papua have not even entered into our posts – for example the diverse and magnificent birdlife, the rarely visited and beautiful high mountain forests, the famous art of the coastal Asmat region and of course Carstensz Pyramid – one of the ‘Seven Summits’.

Travel in Papua is not like travel in a more developed place, it’s a cliche, but you really must expect the unexpected to an extent, retain a very flexible frame of mind, don’t expect the standards you might in Bali or somewhere similar and try and keep a couple of contingency plans ready. We found having a satellite phone to be very useful in remoter areas.

We travelled with the following (in 2009):

Dr. Weiglein Expeditionen GmbH, the most established land operator for Papua, especially if you are interested in mountains and tribes of Papua!

Symbiosis Expedition Planning and Sorido Bay Resort (see previous posts) for the underwater section.

We did not have time for specialist bird watching (and you can actually see a lot if you just ask at Sorido Bay Resort) however if you are interested in the birding the two agents we discussed possibilities with were: Like Wijaya at PapuaExpeditions.com and Shita Prativi at PapuaBirdClub.com.

We hope that next time you feel the need for adventure you’ll consider Papua!

N.B. We are disappearing behind the Great Firewall for a few weeks now. We hope to be back again early November for a few days before heading into the depths of Africa…watch out!