Inventions & Discoveries · Farming and food

Kuk Swamp

c. 7000 BCE

Kuk Swamp is an archaeological site in the Wahgi Valley of the Papua New Guinea highlands, at about 1,550 metres, some 12–13 kilometres northeast of Mount Hagen. Drainage ditches dug there from about 9,000 years ago, from major disposal channels to small field ditches, turned the swamp into grassland where taro was grown, and bananas and sugar cane were cultivated from 6,900–6,400 years ago. Studied by the Australian archaeologist Jack Golson, it was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 as one of the places where people developed agriculture independently. The Kawelka people live in the area today.

Kuk Swamp
Image: NASA: JPL · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

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First known
c. 9,000 years ago
Where
Wahgi Valley, Papua New Guinea

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See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Kuk Swamp. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/kuk-swamp
MLA
“Kuk Swamp.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/kuk-swamp. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Kuk Swamp.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/kuk-swamp.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Kuk Swamp’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/kuk-swamp (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻