That trading may have gone on farther back than widely acknowledged.

That trading may have gone on farther back than widely acknowledged.

 "The idea that ancient hominins of this era valued and made special use of obsidian as a material makes a lot of sense," John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who did not take part in this research, told Live Science. "Obsidian is widely recognized as uniquely

 valuable among natural materials for flaking sharp-edged tools; it is also highly special in appearance. Some historic cultures have used obsidian and traded it across distances of hundreds of miles."

"There has been evidence since the 1970s that obsidian may have been transported across long distances as early as 1.4 million years ago," Hawks said. "That evidence has not been replicated by more recent excavation work, but the new report by Mussi and coworkers may be a step in that direction."