Based on my astonishment at the find and my advice that it was extremely important, the general manager stopped work at the site until I and my colleagues Dr Peter White and Dr Nina Kononenko from the University of Sydney could travel to Hargy Oil Palms Ltd near Bialla, a long and dusty drive from Hoskins airport.

By the time we arrived late one afternoon, the workmen had recovered a number of broken parts of other tools identical to the complete artefact. All in all there were two definite and two possible tools with the same phallic shape.

These brought into perspective a stemmed tool collected in the 1980’s from the Apugi Island offshore from the south coast of New Britain and another I had only recently discovered in the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin.

The set suddenly came together to create a definite type that might have been widely used on New Britain. Using a portable x-ray fluorescence instrument set up on the veranda of the plantation guest house, I measured the chemical composition of the tool.

The results showed that all the tools collected at Barema had come from the Kuatu-Bao obsidian source located some 100 km away by sea, where they were probably made and then reached Barema through trading networks.

What was the function of these tools in the past? The high level of skill required to make the smooth rounded end of the tool and then retouch the stem cannot be over-emphasised. Modern knappers with long experience are unanimous in their praise of the prehistoric tool makers. This suggests that they were used to create and support status differences within local groups.

What about their meaning? They could have been used to signify male potency or within initiation ceremonies for either sex. The finding of a group in one small location (a cache) may indicate a high status burial (bones do not preserve in these acidic volcanic soils) or perhaps a place where powerful objects were stored, such as a men’s house. From the shape it seems that the male sexuality was among the traits that played a significant role in the ceremonial and spiritual life of the ancient people at Barema.

There is much that we do not know at this stage. Archaeological research in PNG is still in the pioneering phase, particularly in New Britain. We have not yet excavated a village from this time period. Still this remarkable find opens up an ancient world peopled by individuals with meaningful and creative lives, some of whom skilfully crafted beautiful objects and others who used these to show off their prowess or wealth, to increase fertility, or through initiations to ensure perpetuity for their clan.

The stemmed tools from Barema are now housed at the National Museum of PNG in Port Moresby.

Dr Robin Torrence is Senior Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum