Melanesian Obsidian in Micronesia

From Waka Kuaka | The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 131, no. 4 (2022): OBSIDIAN POINT DISCOVERED ON KAPINGAMARANGI ATOLL, MICRONESIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR POST-SETTLEMENT REGIONAL INTERACTIONS TAKUYA NAGAOKA. Pasifika Renaissance PETER J. SHEPPARD, Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland CALLAN ROSS-SHEPPARD, McGill University NINA KONONENKO, University of Sydney, Australian Museum ABSTRACT: An obsidian point was discovered by chance by local people on Kapingamarangi Atoll, a Polynesian Outlier in Micronesia. In addition to use-wear and residue analysis to identify its use, pXRF analysis conducted on it demonstrated that it was brought from the Admiralty Islands in Papua New Guinea over about 900 km. The information on other Admiralty obsidian artefacts found in western Oceania and other associated phenomena suggest that those artefacts were brought from the source through an interaction network between Micronesia and Melanesia during the first half of the second millennium…