During September and October 1996, we completed the first archaeological excavations done in the Aitape area on the Sepik coast. The ceramic finds from our excavations on hillcrests at Aitape (which are an uplifted Pliocene/Miocene coral reef formation) suggest that human occupation in this part of the coast dates back at least to the mid-first millennium AD when Sumalo Ware (Chapters 7 and 14) was being locally made. Additionally, our excavations on Tumleo Island recovered sufficient ceramic evidence in stratigraphic position to reconstruct a fairly definitive pottery sequence for this part of New Guinea covering the last 1,500–2,000 years.