Bukit Tengkorak Archeological Museum Semporna

Skull Hill, also known as Bukit Tengkorak in Malay, is an archaeological site situated on Tampi Tampi Road, approximately 6.2 miles to the south of Semporna town.

The hill is like a rocky cave formed by a volcano, and it’s part of a wide volcanic area that’s about 1.2 miles across. There are many other hills and mountains around it, and most of them used to be volcanoes that haven’t erupted for a long time, going back thousands of years.

Between 1994 and 1995, researchers from the Centre for Archaeological Research of Malaysia and the Sabah Museum teamed up to explore Skull Hill. They dug into the ground for about five weeks and found some really old stuff. They discovered many different things like pieces of pots, special stones, tools, and even some items made from shells and bones. They also found plenty of leftover food remains, like seashells and fish bones.

It turns out that this place used to be a big pottery-making factory around 3,000 years ago during the Neolithic period. The hill is covered in broken pieces of old pottery with different designs. Surprisingly, even today, the Bajau community in Semporna still makes similar pottery. This means there’s a connection between the local folks and traders from the Andaman Sea area.

Skull Hill gives us evidence that people traded by sea in ancient times, and it shows us that humans have been moving around for thousands of years.