108
in the Indo-Pacifi c region, with no major settlements
or mining or forestry activities, and, as
such, it also is the one that remains the most
pristine. The Sepik River fl ows largely west to
east along its 1,100-kilometer serpentine course
through northeastern New Guinea, while the
Ramu fl ows 650 kilometers south to north, both
emptying into the Bismarck Sea at either side of
Broken Water Bay about 100 kilometers southeast
of the contemporary town of Wewak. The
Sepik–Ramu basin was formed relatively recently,
within the last 6,000 years, making it also
one of the world’s youngest geographical riverine
localities. Before then, the dual river valleys
and their shared fl oodplains were a single large
inland sea some 200 meters deep with the coasts
formed by the present-day foothills of the mountain
ranges bordering the river valleys. During
the last great ice age, the ocean’s water levels
rose or lowered depending on periodic warmings
and synchronous ice melts, but since the
end of the late Pleistocene Epoch around 12,000
years ago, the ocean’s level has been fairly stable.
With the subsequent slight uplifting of the
Australian and Pacifi c tectonic plates, the inland
sea slowly began to fi ll in with river silt. This
process, occurring over 5,000 years, created the
meandering Sepik, with its numerous ox-bow
bends, tied-off lakes, and the tributary rivers
that feed it, and the equally serpentine Ramu.
The rapid transformation from salt water–based
ecology to a freshwater riverine has meant that
the normal evolutionary timeframe for species
to adapt or for new ones to appear has been limited.
For instance, it is estimated that the Sepik–
Ramu River systems have about ten percent of
the biodiversity of similarly sized river systems
elsewhere in the world. The Sepik and Ramu
fl ood annually and their lower reaches become
temporarily linked again by the rising waters in
FIG. 5 (left):
Cult fi gure.
Iatmul; Angoram Village,
Sepik River, Papua New
Guinea. 19th century.
Wood, pigments. 64 cm.
Ex Ernst Heinrich; Bad Cannstatt,
Stuttgart.
FIG. 6 (below):
Comparative maps
showing the contemporary
Sepik–Ramu area and the
region’s vast embayment of
approximately 6000 BP.
Cartography: J. M. Fogel Media Inc.
FIG. 7 (near right):
Lime container, mbandi
iavu. Iatmul; Middle Sepik
River, Papua New Guinea.
19th century.
Bamboo, wood, fi ber, pigments.
60 cm.
Ex Walter Bondy, Paris; Drouot, Paris,
sale of 8–11 May 1928, lot 275;
Ernst Heinrich; Bad Cannstatt,
Stuttgart.
Photo: Hughes Dubois.
FIG. 8 (far right):
War and hunting charm,
yipwon. Karawari River,
Papua New Guinea.
19th century.
Wood, pigments. H: 236 cm.
Ex Father Joep Heinemans, Catholic
mission, Wewak, Papua New Guinea;
Museum voor Land en Volkenkunde,
Rotterdam.
Photo: Hughes Dubois.
ART ON VIEW