The Longest Stone Age Trade Route in the World: Southwest Pacific Obsidian Reached Borneo (Malaysia) in the 5^th Millennium BC

Long-distance trade in obsidian from sources in the southwest Pacific is well-documented for the Lapita cultural complex, ca. 1600-1000 BC. New analyses of obsidian from Bukit Tengkorak in southeastern Sabah (Borneo) indicate that obsidian also was traded extensively in Malaysia, as early as the 5th millennium BC. Obsidian from four distinct sources was utilized, including Talasea in New Britain, more than 3000 km away, and a source in the Admiralty Islands may also be present. Interactions between these regions three millennia before the Lapita colonization strengthens the hypothesis that this cultural complex originated in southeast Asia.