New excavations in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have revealed an ancient network of cargoship routes in the South Pacific.
Archaeological research suggests more than 2,000 years of connections involving Indonesia and possibly Australia before it was colonised by the UK.
Scientists have been unearthing pottery shards that have been carbon dated to show cargoships began arriving 2,700 years ago.
PNG has no known history of pottery making and the materials are foreign.
