Geochemical sourcing of stone tools recovered on islands across the Bismarck Archipelago shows that obsidian quarried on New Britain was being moved by sea to neighboring islands many centuries before the later Lapita cultural expansion. Researchers estimate this inter-island movement extends back into the late Pleistocene and continued through the early Holocene, making it among the oldest known evidence of sea-based exchange anywhere in the world. The distances involved imply organized watercraft use and sustained contact between island communities.
Relevance to Trade History
Provides some of the earliest evidence anywhere for sea-based exchange networks, predating comparable Mediterranean maritime trade by millennia.
Read the full story in our article Obsidian and the World's Oldest Known Trade Networks.
Source: Australian National University, School of Archaeology and Anthropology. See our Sources & Methodology page for how we select and verify references.