Between March 1993 and February 1994, archaeological site surveys were conducted in and around coastal and nearby offshore island communities in the area between the Serra Hills west of Aitape and the town of Wewak east of there. No excavations were carried out. Most of the surface collections made came from sites on Tendanye (Tarawai) and Walifu (Walis) islands off the coast of Wewak; Tumleo, Ali, Seleo, and Angel islands off the coast at Aitape; and the mainland Serra district west of Sissano Lagoon. We found an impressive diversity of previously unknown and unrecorded prehistoric pottery styles both locally in the Aitape and Tandanye-Walifu areas and along the entire coastal region surveyed. For both the Serra and Aitape areas, it was possible to use the evidence recovered to develop plausible ceramic sequences, and it can be argued that all the ceramic industries, extant and archaeological, now known for this coastal region are alike derived historically from the same red-slip tradition, which on present evidence was first established on Tumleo Island about 2,000 years ago.