Go BackBukit Tengkorak (the name means "skull hill") is a 500-foot-tall hill, part of the rim of an extinct volcano whose crater spans 2 kilometers. The area has since been overgrown with vegetation. Archaeological excavation at Bukit Tengkorak has yielded shards from pottery, ornaments and tools from the Lapita culture, from some three thousand years ago.
Bukit Tengkorak is regarded as one of the finest archaeological sites on the east coast of Sabah. It was first discovered in 1994, excavated by Dr Stephen Chia Ming Soon of the Archaeological Research Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Dr Chia wrote his PhD thesis based on the research work he carried out on the site. The project was made possible through a partial funding from the Toyota Foundation.
According to Dr Chia, the site provides evidence of prehistoric trade and culture contact between Bukit Tengkorak and other sites in Southeast Asia as well as the Pacific realm. By the time research was concluded in 1997, the Bukit Tengkorak site has yielded valuable information about the movement of prehistoric peoples. An ancient pottery-making site was also discovered in the Bukit Tengkorak area, along with obsidian that was brought to Bukit Tengkorak from the New Britain area, some 3,500 km away.
Contact
Bukit Tengkorak Open Archaeological MuseumSemporna, Sabah
Phone: 088 253199
Email: jmuzium@tm.net.my
Acknowledgement
AsiaExplorers thanks Dr Stephen Chia for making available information on this archaeological site. The following article is referenced:Prehistoric Trade and Culture Contact Between Bukit Tengkorak and Other Sites in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region, by Dr Stephen Chia
Back to Discover Sabah mainpage
Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips
Discover with Timothy videos on Sabah
What to see when in Sabah? Here are some suggestions from my videos.Disclaimer
Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.About this website
Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.
While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.
Copyright © 2003-2025 Timothy Tye. All Rights Reserved.