Journal of Archaeological Science (2002) 29, 687698

doi:10.1006/jasc.2001.0783, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

Starch Grains and Environmental Reconstruction: a Modern

Test Case from West New Britain, Papua New Guinea
Carol Lentfer
Centre for Geoarchaeology and Palaeoenvironmental Research, School of Environmental Science and
Management, Southern Cross University, P.O. Box 157, Lismore NWS 2480, Australia

Michael Therin
11 Salisbury Road, Willoughby, NSW 2068, Australia

Robin Torrence
Division of Anthropology, Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia

(Received 16 January 2001, revised manuscript accepted 7 February 2001)

The analysis of starch grains preserved in sediments as a technique for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction is an
important new technique, but the limits of inference using this methodology still need to be assessed. A morphological
classification of starches extracted from topsoils collected from a range of modern environments in the humid tropical
region of Papua New Guinea was therefore conducted to see if discrimination among plots with dierent vegetation
could be achieved. Using an assemblage-based approach, starch grains, initially classified into morphological categories
and re-organized into groups according to size/shape frequency distributions, were grouped using principal components
analysis. The results correctly identified dierent types of human land use and provided good discrimination between
gardens and forest. These preliminary results show that past human land use can be satisfactorily reconstructed using
multivariate analysis of starch grain assemblages with only data on size and morphology to characterize the grains. The
findings of the starch study compared favourably with a phytolith analysis of material from the same locations,
although the two microfossils target dierent plant groups. Whereas phytoliths discriminate among dierent levels of
disturbance, starch grains can add information about specific site function, an important consideration especially for
regions where plant staples are typically high-starch producers. Combining starch grains and phytoliths in future studies
will enhance the accuracy of palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: STARCH GRAINS, PHYTOLITHS, PLANT MICROFOSSILS, PALAEOENVIRONMENTS,

PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

Introduction 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986; Ugent, Dillehay & Ramirez,

1987). The role of starch grains for palaeoenvironmen-
lant microfossils (e.g. pollen, spores, phytoliths tal reconstruction has only recently been recognized.

P and starch grains) are valuable sources of data

for archaeology because they provide detailed
information about environmental change in relation to
both natural and anthropogenic processes and help
determine patterns of human settlement and subsist-
ence. Starch grains have primarily been used to study
diet, plant processing, food preparation, and tool
use (e.g. Barton & White, 1993; Barton, Fullagar &
Torrence, 1998; Fullagar, 1998; Hall, Higgins &
Fullagar, 1989; Loy, Spriggs & Wickler, 1992; Loy,
1994; Piperno, 1998: 423427; Piperno & Holst, 1998;
Samuel, 1996, 2000; Ugent, Pozorski & Pozorski,
687
03054403/02/$-see front matter
Consequently, very few studies have been undertaken
to evaluate the advantages and shortcomings of this
new source of data. Exploratory studies have demon-
strated that starch is well preserved in archaeological
sediments from tropical environments (Fullagar, Loy
& Cox, 1998; Atchison & Fullagar, 1998; Therin,
1994). Therin (1994, 1998a) has also shown that move-
ment of starch grains through a soil profile is insignifi-
cant. A more detailed study by Therin, Fullagar &
Torrence (1999) extracted starch grains from sediments
taken from two open sites in Papua New Guinea
dating from c. 6000500 . On the basis of variations
 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
688 C. Lentfer et al.
PNG
Location
Map
Papua New Guinea
Figure 1. Locations of soil samples used in the analyses (cf. Table 1).
in the composition of the starch assemblages
from dierent layers, they proposed changes in local
vegetation and used these to infer site function. Their
conclusions were supported by additional archaeologi-
cal data. Since the links made by Therin, Fullagar &
Torrence (1999) between starch grain size and vegeta-
tion types were rather simplistic and in some cases may
have been incorrect, the main value of their study was
to demonstrate that starch assemblages can vary in
relation to changes in human land use. Further studies
are required to evaluate how accurately and in what
ways the composition of starch grain assemblages in
sediments monitors the plant communities from which
the starch was derived.
This article reports the results of a modern test case
which was carried out to measure the nature of the
starch grain assemblages extracted from sediments
collected from plots with a variety of vegetation types
and land use histories. Since cultivated food crops are
characterized by large quantities of starch, we pre-
dicted that, at the very least, variation in starch grain
assemblages should be able to dierentiate between
cultivated plots and other types of vegetation
particularly forests in which starch-bearing plants are
relatively dispersed and uncommon.
In the absence of an adequate starch reference
collection, an assemblage-based approach of general
morphologies using multivariate techniques was em-
ployed. Previous studies have shown that this method-
ology can process large amounts of data and establish
meaningful patterns of associations between micro-
fossils that show environmental dierentiation
(Powers, Padmore & Gilbertson, 1989; Boyd, Lentfer
& Torrence, 1998).
0 100
km
Bismark Sea
Willaumez Peninsula Garua
Island
Goni
New Britain
Yombon
Kandrian Solomon Sea
Kumbum
Site Description and Sampling Procedures
Sediment samples for the starch analysis were collected
from Garua, Kaula and Garala Islands and the Garu
village environs in West New Britain province, Papua
New Guinea. Fifteen localities, representing a variety
of habitats including ocean foreshore, closed forest,
regrowth forest, new gardens, fallow gardens, coconut
plantations, and a village were sampled (Figure 1;
Table 1). At each location pinch samples of soil were
collected randomly within a 1010 metre quadrat.
Soil from the uppermost 4 cm was included and litter
was excluded.
Local informants provided information about the
history of recent land use at each sampling locality,
and a plant survey was carried out. Nine localities,
Gu7ac, IG, Gu8, Gu3, Gu5, Gu11 and GMH3 had a
cultivation history alternating between gardening and
bush-fallow. In the region traditional swidden tech-
niques are used for garden preparation. Shade trees,
usually useful trees (e.g., mango, Canarium sp., bread-
fruits and figs) are usually left to grow and all other
vegetation is cut, piled into heaps and burnt. Taro
(Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) is usually the first crop
planted on newly prepared beds, and following the first
harvest other more resilient crops including sweet
potato, Singapore taro (Xanthosoma sagittifolium (L.)
Schott), yams, bananas, cassava and sugar cane are
planted and allowed to grow with minimal follow-on
care. Eventually garden plots are overtaken with
grasses, sedges, ferns and herbaceous weeds which give
way to shade tolerant gingers, heliconias and ferns as a
suite of colonizing trees (e.g. Mallotus, Ficus, Abroma,
Macaranga, Leukosyke, Endospermum, Omalanthus
 Starch Grains and Environmental Reconstruction 689

Table 1. Summary of localities used for the starch and phytolith analyses. Localities marked by * were used for the
phytolith study. IG** was used for the starch analysis only

Sitecode Location Habitat description

G11* Garala Island Foreshore under trees and palms

G12 Garala Island Sandy beach with Ipomoea pes-caprae Roth.
G13 Garala Island Closed forest with understorey of gingers and palms
G14* Garala Island Closed forest with understorey of gingers and palms
K1* Kaula Island Closed forest with palm understorey
K2 Kaula Island Closed forest with palm understorey
GMH5* Garua Island Old garden with Singapore taro
GMH6* Garua Island New garden site with burnt breadfruit trees
GMH2* Garua Island Open regrowth forest with grass ground cover
GMH3 Garua Island Closed regrowth forest with understorey of ginger
IG** Garua Island New garden with taro
GFSZ* Garua Island New garden with taro
GFEk Garua Island Coconut plantation with grass and weedy understorey
GBL Garua Island Littoral with grassees, Ipomoea pes-caprae Roth. and legumes
GFYS* Garua Island Coconut plantation with ground cover dominated by Imperata cylindrica
Beauv. and ferns
Gu1* Garu Cultivated garden, one year old, with Singapore taro
Gu3 Garu Overgrown garden with bananas, cassava and weeds
Gu5 Garu New garden with sweet potato, Singapore taro and sugar cane
Gu6* Garu Old garden with sweet potato, Singapore taro and weeds
Gu7a Garu Newly prepared garden with taro
Gu7b Garu Newly prepared garden with taro
Gu7c Garu New garden planted with taro
Gu8 Garu Freshly cleared forest after 10 years regrowth
Gu9* Garu Forest with 10 years regrowth and ready for clearing
Gu11 Garu Village area with grasses under palms
Nv Nave River Logged closed forest with ginger understorey
Yo2* Yombon Inside mens house
Yo3* Yombon Outside mens house
KmA* Kumbun/Apelo Swept village area dominated by coconut palms
Km6* Kumbun Abandoned garden with Imperata cylindrica Beauv.

and Homalium species) create canopy cover. Plots are
usually left to bush-fallow for 1020 years.
Of the nine localities representing garden sites, four
were freshly cleared areas planted with taro (Gu7c
and IG), one was an older garden with a ground cover
dominated by sweet potato vine (Gu5), and another
(Gu3) was an abandoned garden with sugar cane,
bananas and cassava overgrown with a common Aster-
aceae weed Ageratum conyzoides L. The remaining
three comprised an abandoned garden site on Garua
Island with well developed bush-fallow where gingers
dominated the ground layer and a tree common in
regrowth, Homalium foetidum (Roxb.) Benth. domi-
nated the canopy (GMH3), an area of forest that had
been freshly cleared after 10 years fallow where the
vegetation had been piled into heaps ready for burning
(Gu8), and finally, another area immediately adjacent
to a swept village with grasses and coconut palms
(Gu11).
The other sampled localities did not have a recent
garden history, although the two foreshore locations
on Garua Island, FEK and GBL were within a coconut
plantation area characterized by ground cover consist-
ing of grasses, ferns and herbaceous weeds. Local oral
history states that minimal garden activity had oc-
curred at some stage in the past on the small volcanic
islands which were sampled. At these localities, K2 on
Kaula Island, and G12 and G13 on Garala Island
comprised palm forest with a mixed canopy of Euodia,
Myristica, Homalium and Diospyros species, an under-
storey dominated by palms, Caryota rumphiana Mart.
and Hydriastele sp., and some small trees, mostly
Polyscias cumingiana (Presl.) F.-Vill. Vines, including
Calamus ralumensis Warb., Capparis zippeliania Miq.,
Smilax vitiensis A. DC., Faradaya sp. and Flagellaria
sp. were also common. The ground layer on the Garala
Island sites, G12 and G13 comprised mostly ferns,
gingers and heliconias. Palm seedlings were more
common on the Kaula Island. In contrast to these
localities, Nave River (Nv) comprised an inland forest
recovering after logging approximately 12 years pre-
viously. Common emergent and canopy trees included
Euphorianthus longifolius Radk., Celtis sp., Myristica
schleinitzia Engl., Chisocheton sp. and Pometia pinnata
J. R. and G. Ernst. The understorey comprised smaller
trees and shrubs common in regrowth (Trema, Heriti-
era, Pipterus species) and palms, mostly Hydriastele sp.
Gingers, ferns and aroids were common in the ground
layer.
The variation in vegetation among the sampled
localities provides a good test case for whether starch
grains deposited in the soil can accurately reconstruct
690 C. Lentfer et al.

Table 2. Protocol developed by Therin (1998b) for extracting starch grains from sediments

I. Deflocculation and removal of clay

1. Sieve dry sediment through a 2 mm sieve. Weigh out 5 g of sieved sediment.
2. Crush the sediment in a mortar and pestle until it is a fine powder. Transfer sediment to a 200 ml beaker.
3. Place 20 ml of 6% H2O2 in the beaker and stir, leave for 1 h. At 30 min top up with 20 ml H2O2.
4. Sieve sediment suspension through a 250
m sieve, using H2O. Discard >250
m fraction.
5. Pour contents of the collecting pan into a 600 ml beaker and allow to sit for 1 h.
6. Remove supernatant with an aspirator, discard. Transfer remaining suspension to a 200 ml beaker and allow
to sit for 40 min.
7. Remove supernatant with an aspirator and discard. Transfer remaining suspension to a 50 ml centrifuge tube.
8. Fill tube to 50 ml with 5% Calgon (@ 35C) and centrifuge @ 2500 rpm for 1 min.
9. Decant supernatant and discard.
10. Repeat steps 78 until the supernatant is clear.
11. Fill tube to 50 ml with H2O and centrifuge @ 2500 rpm for 2 min.
12. Decant supernatant and discard.
13. Repeat steps 1112, twice.
14. Dry sediment @ 40C in oven.

II. Extraction of Starch

15. Add 8 ml Na6(H2W12O40) (@ sg 13) to vial holding dried sediment.
16. Centrifuge @ 2500 rpm for 12 min.
17. Discard supernatant.
18. Place 5 ml Na6(H2W12O40) (@ sg 20) in vial.
19. Centrifuge @ 2000 rpm for 10 min.
20. Decant supernatant into a new 50 ml graduated centrifuge tube.
21. Repeat steps 1819. Decant into the same new 50 ml tube.
22. Fill tube to 50 ml with ultra pure H2O. Centrifuge @ 3000 rpm for 10 min.
23. Pour o and discard roughly two thirds of the supernatant leaving roughly 15 ml of suspension in the
centrifuge tube.
24. Repeat steps 2223, twice, finally decanting most of the supernatant to leave the residue.
25. Dry remaining suspension @ 40C in oven.

III. Mounting
26. Add 500
l of ultra pure H2O to the dried suspension.
27. Vortex, using a pipette place 60
l on a microscope slide and let dry.
28. Mount in Euparol.

the local environment. The region has another advan-
tage for a test case of this type because the modern
topsoil is forming on a volcanic tephra that is known to
be no older than 1000 years (Machida et al., 1996). The
young age of the soil means that there is less chance of
mixing from the various types of land use that might
have occurred in the distant past (e.g. Torrence,
Pavlides, Jackson & Webb, 2000).
Starch Extraction, Classification and
Counting Procedures
Starch extraction from the sediment samples followed
a heavy liquid separation protocol (Table 2) developed
by Therin (1988b) on the basis of extensive experimen-
tation. This methodology represents a considerable
improvement on the techniques used previously (e.g.
Fullagar, Loy & Cox, 1998; Atchison & Fullagar,
1998; Therin, Fullagar & Torrence, 1999; Therin,
1994). The soil samples were oven dried at 40C and
five gram subsamples were taken for the analysis.
These were oxidized in hydrogen peroxide, sieved
through a 250
m mesh, deflocculated using Calgon
solution, and fractionated for starch separation with
sodium polytungstate. The residue samples containing
starch were mounted on to microscope slides in
Euparol. An Olympus BC60 light microscope with a
polarizer was used to undertake the classification and
recording of the starch grains.
Using previous work undertaken by Therin (1994;
Therin, Fullagar & Torrence, 1999), a key of common
starch morphologies was drawn up (Therin, 1998c).
Individual starch types were defined using the follow-
ing features: hilium (visible/non-visible); position of the
hilium; lamellae (present/absent); two-dimensional
shape of the grain; and character and position of the
extinction cross. Each combination of features was
assigned an individual key number. As the analysis
proceeded, new types were added when encountered.
In all, 90 separate starch types were included in the key
(Figure 2).
The slides were initially scanned under polarized
light at a magnification of 200 to locate the starch
grains for measurement. To ensure that duplicate re-
cording of starch grains was avoided, the slides were
scanned in transects the width of the field of view.
Recording of 100150 grains per sample was under-
taken at a magnification of 500. Both polarized and
non-polarized light were used as appropriate. The
 Starch Grains and Environmental Reconstruction 691

1. 2.
81. Light yellow 84.

4. 6. 86. 87.

9. 10. 89. 91.

11. 12.
92. 97.

15. 16.
98. 99.

18. 19. 112. 113.

20. 21. 114. 115.

22. 23.
118. 119.

26. 27.
122. 123.

28. 30. 130.

128.

31. 32. 131. 133.

33.
35.
134. 135.

36. 38.
136. 137.

39. Starch mass 40.

138. Light yellow 139.

41. 44.
140. 141.

45. 46.
142. Light yellow 143. Light yellow

47. 48.
144. 145.
49. 51.
146. 147.
53. 55.
148. 149.

57. 59.
150. 151.

60. 65. 152. Light yellow 153.

74. 76. 154. 155.

77. 79.

Figure 2. Expendable key of starch grain morphologies (Therin, 1998c). Grains are not drawn to scale.

shape and distinctive features of grains were noted according to morphological type using a number allo-
under non-polarized light. The character and location cated from the exandable starch key (Figure 2). Maxi-
of the extinction cross were then recorded under polar- mum length and width were recorded, with the width
ized light. Each starch grain was drawn and classified measured at the widest point perpendicular to the length.
692 C. Lentfer et al.
Type 4
30
2
R = 0.6397
20
Width
T4b
10
T4a
0 10 20 30
Length
Figure 3. Scatter plot with linear regression for length against width
of all starch grains assigned to category 4, showing boundaries of
subtypes. Outliers were deleted from the analysis.
Reclassification of Types
The key focused on morphology and did not account
for size dierences since these were measured separ-
ately. Where appropriate, it was therefore necessary to
divide the morphological types into smaller subtypes
based on size dierences. All starch grains were in-
cluded in this procedure regardless of sample prov-
enance. For each of the 90 morphological types, a
search was made for significant clustering on scatter
plots of length against width and the results were
combined with linear regressions showing length/width
relationships. Outliers resulting in low regression coef-
ficient scores were considered to be atypical of the
morphological type categories and were deleted from
the analysis (Figure 3). In addition, histograms of
length were examined for the presence of modal groups
and breaks between size classes. Using the information
about the distribution patterns provided by the graphs
and plots, types were then subdivided into size classes
(e.g. 1ac, etc. referred to as subtypes) based on the
assumption that each class would have a roughly
normal distribution. The size classes were chosen to
reflect the particular distribution patterns of each sub-
type and therefore the boundaries are variable within
and between types. Using this procedure 33 additional
types were created giving a total of 123 types (Table 3).
Multivariate Analysis
The original assemblage data were re-organized ac-
cording to the new size-shape classification system and
counts were transformed into percentages. To reduce
noise in the multivariate analysis, all rare types (orig-
inal types that were not subdivided according to
the size/shape analysis and which had less than 1%
Table 3. Summary of starch classifications used in the analysis
I. Original starch types
1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31,
32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59,
60, 65, 74, 76, 77, 79, 81, 84, 86, 87, 89, 91, 92, 97, 98, 99, 112, 113,
114, 115, 118, 119, 122, 123, 128, 130, 131, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137,
138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151,
152, 153, 154, 155
II. Expanded list according to size
1a1f, 2a2e, 4a4c, 6a6c, 9a9d, 10, 11a11b, 12a12c, 15a15c,
16a16b, 18a18b, 20a20b, 21, 22a22c, 23a23c, 26a26c, 27a27c,
28a, 31a, 32a32b, 33a33c, 35a35b, 36a36c, 38a38b, 40a40b,
41, 44, 45, 46, 47a47c, 48, 51a51b, 53, 55a55b, 57a57b, 59a59b,
60a60b, 65, 66, 70, 74, 76, 77a77b, 79, 81, 84, 87, 89, 91, 92a92b,
97a97b, 98a98b, 99a99b, 113, 123, 128a128b, 135, 137a137b,
138a138b, 139a139b, 142a142b, 143a, 144a, 145a
III. Rare types deleted
6b, 6c, 11b, 15c, 16b, 18b, 31a, 32b, 33c, 36c, 44a, 46a, 48a, 57b, 59a,
59b, 65, 66, 70, 74, 84, 87, 91, 97a, 97b, 98b, 99b, 113, 123, 130, 131,
133, 134, 136, 140, 141, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154,
155
IV. Final starch types
1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f, 2a, 2bc, 2de, 4a, 4bc, 6a, 9a, 9bcd, 10a, 11a, 12a,
12bc, 15ab, 16a, 18a, 20, 22a, 22bc, 23ab, 23c, 26a, 26b, 26c, 27, 28a,
32a, 33ab, 35, 36ab, 38a, 38b, 40, 41a, 45a, 47ab, 47c, 51, 53a, 55,
57a, 60, 76, 77, 79, 81, 89a, 92ab, 98a, 99a, 128, 135a, 137, 138, 139,
142, 143a, 144a, 145a
presence for any site) were deleted. With this revised
data set (Table 3), principal components analysis using
Euclidean distance measures and a correlation matrix
was conducted. This initial analysis produced 14 prin-
cipal components with eigenvalue scores greater than
1, explaining the total assemblage variance. The first
three principal components explained 38% of that
variance.
Next, sample and vector plots of the principal com-
ponents were examined for associations between types/
subtypes and sample sites. As summarized above,
division into subtypes had been made on the assump-
tion of normality, but in some cases that may have
been a false expectation since many plant species have
populations with large size variations which are not
necessarily normally distributed (cf. Reichert, 1913).
To take into account variation in size range within a
single plant species, subtypes that were always associ-
ated with the same sampling localities were recombined
(e.g., subtypes 23a and 23b with the same locality
associations became 23ab), based on the assumption
that subtypes that co-occurred were derived from the
same plant species. Using all the information on sizes,
principal components analysis was again conducted
with 64 types and subtypes (Table 3).
Results
The second analysis was marginally stronger with the
first three principal components explaining 45% of
 Starch Grains and Environmental Reconstruction 693

3
(a) Logged forest Small island sites
with palm forest
Nv
2 Garden, GI2
village and old
garden regrowth
sites
1
Gu7c Gu11
Coconut plantation Gu8
IG GI3
sites and garden
PC2

0 with Ipomoea GFEK

Gu7b Gu7a
Gu5

GBL
Gu3 GMH3
1

K2
2

3
2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
PC1

0.6
1c 26c
(b)
57a
38a 139
0.4 47ab 15ab
26b 51 142
9bcd

1b 32a 45a 47c

0.2 1d 143a
137 81a
33ab 53a
11a 35 10a 1c
20 138
PC2v1v2

79a 4a 12a
26a 27 18a 41a 99a
0.0 9a 1f 12bc 23c 4bc
36 16a 144a
6a 2de 92ab 60 128
98a 23ab 135a
76a
55
1a 49
0.2 22bc
2bc
28a

0.4 38b 145a

22a
89a
2a
0.6
0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
PC1v1v2
Figure 4. Biplot of the first two principal components of the starch analysis explaining 33% of variation in the assemblages. A is the sample
plot and B is the vector plot.  palm forest;  old garden;  new garden;  coconut plantation;
regrowth forest; + village;  logged
forest.
the variance. An examination of two bi-plots using
dierent combinations of these principal components
(PC1 versus PC2 and PC1 versus PC3, see Figures 4 &
5) shows similar associations between sample localities.
Four distinct habitat groups have been segregated by
the analysis: (1) the logged forest (Nv) on the upper left
of both plots; (2) the small volcanic islands with palm
forest (K2, G13 and G12) on the right of both plots; (3)
the coconut plantation plots (GFEK and GBL) and
one of the gardens (Gu5) on the middle left and lower
left; and finally (4) gardens (IG, Gu3, Gu7ac), village
(Gu11) and regrowth forest after gardening (GMH3
and Gu8), which are clustered in the middle of the
plots. It is notable that the coconut plantation localities
GFEK and GBL were from foreshore locations and
although ground cover at these locations were domi-
nated by ferns, grasses and other herbaceous weeds, it
is possible that at some time in recent history, Ipomoea
pes-caprae L. was present. This species typically forms
dense mats of ground coverage along foreshore sites in
694 C. Lentfer et al.

3
(a) Logged forest
Small island sites
Nv with palm forest
2
K2

Garden,
village and old
1 Coconut plantation garden regrowth
sites and garden sites
with Ipomoea
PC3

Gu8

Gu7c IG
0 GFEK Gu7a
GMH3
Gu3 GI3
Gu7b Gu11
GBL

1
GI2

Gu5

2
1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
PC1

0.6
35
(b) 45a

33ab
47ab
0.4 26b
32a
1c 4bc
38b 40
145a
2bc
22a 22
89a
0.2 41a
11a
PC3v1v3

4a
12bc 128 135
1b 28a 26c 60
1a 1f
2a 4a 55 9bcd
36 76a 51
38a
0 79a 2de 144a 10a
6a 1d
23ab 23c
12a
20 77 92ab 15ab 57a 1e
16a 99a
138
81a 47c
137 143a
0.2 98a 53a 142
27a 139
9a
26a
18a

0.4
0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
PC1v1v3
Figure 5. Biplot of the first and third principal components of the starch analysis explaining 31% of variation in the assemblages. A is the
sample plot and B is the vector plot.  palm forest;  old garden;  new garden;  coconut plantation; regrowth forest; + village;
 logged forest.

the region. It is a close relative of the sweet potato. types of vegetation and especially between places which
Therefore, this may explain the association of these have experienced swidden gardening and forests with
sites with the garden site Gu5, the only locality minimal or no gardening. In this analysis the regrowth
sampled with a dominant coverage of sweet potato forests on the small, volcanic islands and the logged
(Table 1). forest sample have been successfully separated from
the cultivated sites.
The position of the cluster in the middle of the starch
Discussion sample principal components plots (Figures 4 & 5)
The results confirm the expectation that variation in is notable. These localities alternate between food
starch assemblages does discriminate between dierent crops and regrowth during the current swidden system.

Consequently, they have diverse plant compositions
typical of dierent environments: i.e. cultivated crops,
herbaceous regrowth and tropical forest species. This
partially accounts for the relatively low level of vari-
ation in the assemblage explained by the first three
principal components (i.e. 45%). Although these sam-
pling localities have a variety of vegetation growing on
them now, they share a common history in terms of
starch plants. All were once gardens that had tubers
with high starch content (taros, yam, and sweet po-
tato). It is therefore not surprising that these swidden
locations have all been grouped together.
At this stage the division of shapes into subtypes
based on size distribution is not definitive. Some
species probably have overlapping dimensions of
starch grains and will have been ill-defined within this
analysis. For instance, Type 1 was split into 6 subtypes
1a (15
m), 1b (69
m), 1c (1013
m), 1d (14 understand the patterns of variation, further research
22
m), 1e (2330
m) and 1f (3539
m) and each was
associated with dierent categories of land use: 1a and
1b had the strongest association with cultivated loca-
tions (gardens and coconut plantation); 1c with the
logged forest site; 1d with the palm forests of the small
volcanic islands; 1e with both forest and garden sites;
and finally, 1f was not clearly defined. The association
of 1e with both forest and garden sites may be due to
incorrect splitting. Likewise, the subdivision of 1a and
1b is questionable since 1a carries little weight within
the analysis for the first 3 principal components (as
indicated by its central position in vector plots) and it
is possible that the size range of this subtype was
incorrectly determined. Alternatively, type 1a, being
small and round and possibly common to many plant
species, may occur in many environments and there-
fore cannot be used eectively to dierentiate between
them. Further statistical tests (e.g., Anova and Hom-
ogeneity tests) could be applied to the size/shape dis-
tribution to better define types and refine the overall
analysis and interpretation, but this preliminary analy-
sis has successfully demonstrated that starch grain
assemblages are capable of discriminating among
various types of land use.
Assemblage based approach
Since this analysis was conducted in the absence of a
starch reference collection, it will certainly be much
improved when starch types can be assigned to plants.
It has already been determined that many important
economic plants have diagnostic starch grains (e.g.
Reichert, 1913; Loy, Spriggs & Wickler, 1992; Loy,
1994; Piperno & Holst, 1998; Ugent et al., 1981, 1982,
1984, 1986, 1987) but very little work has been con-
ducted on the thousands of species present in the study
area. A productive approach in the long run is to begin
the process of identifying the starch grains to plant
taxa through the examination of an appropriate refer-
ence collection. This process has already been initiated
for the West New Britain region (Therin, Torrence &
Fullagar, 1997).
Starch Grains and Environmental Reconstruction 695
In the meantime, the assemblage-based approach
has helped to establish the types of information that
the starch grains can provide and the results point to
areas that would benefit from further research. Multi-
variate analyses of starch grain assemblages can be
very useful as a first stage in classifying soil samples
into vegetation types, even if these cannot yet be
identified. The clustering resulting from the multi-
variate analysis suggests that the inter-assemblage dif-
ferences were related to land use. For many archaeo-
logical studies it will be useful simply to know that
dierent environments are represented in the material
under study and this may help establish further re-
search priorities. The patterns that result might also be
further compared with soils taken from modern set-
tings or with additional archaeological or plant micro-
fossil data that could assist interpretation. To better
can also be focused on the morphologies that are
associated with and define particular clusters and em-
phasis can be placed on identifying these important
types to particular taxa first, rather than tackling
identification of whole assemblages.
Parallel study of phytoliths
The results of the multivariate analysis of the starch
assemblages compare favourably with the previous
phytolith analysis reported in Boyd, Lentfer &
Torrence (1998), which was conducted in parallel to
the starch grain research. Phytoliths were extracted
from sediments taken from many of the same localities
chosen for the starch grain study, but 14 additional
samples were included in the phytolith analyses (Table
1). Figure 6 represents a summary plot of the principal
components analysis of the phytolith data. In this case
discrimination was mainly achieved by the respective
distributions of grass, palm and arboreal phytolith
types (Boyd, Lentfer & Torrence, 1998). These types
separated sampling localities into groups representing
dierent levels of clearing, cultivation and length of
fallow. For example, in Figure 6 the small island
regrowth forest sites with low levels of disturbance are
on the lower left of the plot; coconut plantations and
villages with high levels of disturbance and minimal
regrowth are on the right; disturbed locations associ-
ated with large clearings and substantial regrowth
are plotted in the middle of the plot; and disturbed
localities associated with small forest clearings form a
loose cluster above middle of the plot.
Dierences between the results of the phytolith and
starch analyses are explained to a large degree by the
dierent plant groups targeted by each plant micro-
fossil. Phytoliths are abundant in plants which are
prevalent in disturbed plant associations. For this
reason, the phytolith assemblages could not discrimi-
nate eectively between the logged forest site, garden
sites, village sites, and sites dominated by herbaceous
regrowth, since grass presence was the major common
696 C. Lentfer et al.

3
(a) Disturbed sites
Gu7c associated with
small forest
clearings and
2 long forest fallow
Gu8

Gu6 Gu5
Gu9
1 Disturbed sites Gu7a
associated with large Nv
PC2

clearings and Gu1

GFSZ
Yo2
substantial regrowth Gu3
GMH5
0
GMH6
GI3 GFYS
GI4
GBL GFEK
Yo3
K1 Gu7b
GI1 GMH3
K2 GMH2 Highly
1
Gu11 disturbed
sites with
Small island sites Km6
minimal
with low levels of KmA regrowth
disturbance
2
3 2 1 0 1 2 3
PC1

0.8
(b)

0.6 cys

bul3

long sm
0.4
misc
zing

0.2 ss
PC2v1v2

musaceae
block lpr
bul1
tracheid fac msps cyp tower
0.0 hb
ns bul2 fisp trap
ds
saddle trilob
0.2 lsps
bilob
cross

0.4

ssps

0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

PC1v1v2
Figure 6. Biplot of the first two principal components of the phytolith analysis explaining 30% of variation in the assemblages. The analysis
contrasted panicoid grass phytoliths from highly disturbed areas such as villages and coconut plantations with phytoliths derived from
dicotyledonous trees and shrubs and other monocots including gingers, bamboos and palm species that commonly occur in the closed forest
communities that typify the wet tropical environment of West New Britain. A is the sample plot and B is the vector plot.  foreshore;  palm
forest;  old garden;  new garden;  coconut plantation;
regrowth forest; + village;  logged forest;  house.
factor in these plant associations. In contrast, high
starch content is more typical of the food crops planted
in the gardens and starchy plants are likely to be
relatively rare in forests regardless of the amount of
disturbance. The starch grain analysis was therefore
successful at discriminating the logged forest and the
disturbed island forests, but the active and fallow
gardens were all clumped together.
The parallel analyses show that phytoliths are very
eective at determining levels of disturbance (Figure 6)
in terms of the extent of clearing and the nature
of cultivation (i.e., length of fallow in association
with gardening and patterns of regrowth), whereas
starch analysis can confirm site function (i.e. garden
versus non-garden). As a result, combining the two
studies will clearly enhance the reconstruction of

palaeoenvironments and human land use. This is
particularly relevant for contexts such as West
New Britain, where the staple crops are high starch
producers and mainly non-phytolith producers.
Conclusions
This study has shown that the analysis of starch grains
extracted from sediments can separate environments in
terms of dierences in land use. The analysis of starch
derived from soil samples collected in the humid tropi-
cal region of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea,
from a set of dierent modern environments character-
ized by a range of land use histories, was successful at
discriminating between garden sites and non-garden
sites. At this stage of research, in the absence of a
starch reference collection for the region, starch mor-
phologies were not assigned to plant taxa. However,
using an assemblage-based approach, with size/shape
distribution and multivariate statistical techniques suc-
cessful results were obtained. The results compare
favourably with a parallel phytolith study and there-
fore illustrate the benefits of combining the analysis of
starch grains with the study of phytoliths. In particu-
lar, it was shown that the two plant microfossil groups
target dierent plant complexes and while variation in
the phytolith assemblages was very eective for deter-
mining levels of disturbance to vegetation and patterns
of regrowth, starch variation was important for adding
information about the site function, especially in terms
of forest versus garden.
The study of starch grains extracted from sediments
represents an important advance in palaeoenvironmen-
tal research and should be highly beneficial for study-
ing the history of human land use. It has especially
high potential for research in regions such as West
New Britain where predominant plant staples are high
starch producers. Starch analyses will be much im-
proved as starch grain morphologies are better studied.
Presently compilation of starch reference material
forms a primary focus of West New Britain starch
research. However, in the absence of reference ma-
terial, this study has demonstrated that assemblage
associations can be readily determined by using size/
shape distribution of starches alone. Used in parallel
with analysis of other microfossil assemblages, such
as phytoliths, starch analysis is a useful methodology
for the reconstruction of palaeoenvironments and
determining the nature and history of human land use.
Acknowledgements
Funding was provided by grants from the Australian
Research Council, the Australia and Pacific Founda-
tion, and the Australian Museum. Torrence holds an
Australian Research Council Senior Fellowship. We
are grateful to the following for assistance with
the fieldwork: National Research Institute (PNG);
Starch Grains and Environmental Reconstruction 697
National Museum and Art Gallery (PNG); West New
Britain Provincial Cultural Centre and especially
John Namuno; Kimbe Bay Shipping Agency; Garua
Plantation; Walindi Plantation and Resort; Bill Boyd
and Ruth Henderson; and residents and land owners in
Garu Village, especially our guides Gabriel Loga and
John Normu.
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