Local responses to shifting coastlines feature prominently in the oral histories of the Gulf Province (Papua New Guinea). Stories told in the Kouri district, east of the Vailala River, tell of a past when villages that are today located 6 km from the sea were then coastal settlements with communities actively engaged in regular exchange relations with seafaring Motu traders. Archaeological excavations at Meiharo provide further insights into such relations around 500 cal BP, apparently shortly preceding the period of oral tradition. In doing so, Meiharo further contextualises the history of the ethnographically recorded hiri exchange system, a network of exchange partnerships which affected the lives of people living along at least 400 km of the PNG southern lowlands. This paper focuses on the excavations and ceramics from the site of Meiharo 1.