<em>By 3000 B.C.E., oceangoing peoples from Southeast Asia began to visit the northern coasts of New Guinea for trading purposes.</em>
Historians consider that the first settlers that arrived in New Guinea were Southeastern people in the 40,000 BC, but it nos was until 5,000 BC that agriculture techniques started to develop in the island. Another wave of Sothern Asian people arrived in the 3000-2000 BC. By this time, people in New Guinea were good farmers and grew crops that could trade with other Asian people. The island also had many raw materials and natural resources that were also traded.
