Once upon a meter , half a million people perhaps survive on a Brobdingnagian archipelago that stretch out of Australia ’s north coast . Unfortunately , the prehistoric country of origin was eventually mislay to the ocean wave due to intense sea stage wage hike that hit the world some 14,000 years ago .
scientist led by Griffith University have latterly been studying the ocean storey topography on the Australian northwestern United States continental shelf to understand how this area appeared in an era before the oceans rose .
They conclude that this long - lose land could have potentially been home to a solid universe of humans , perhaps as many as 500,000 people at its acme .
During lower sea levels, a vast archipelago formed on the Australian northwest continental shelf.Image credit: K Norman, et al./Quaternary Science Reviews (2024)
The young research revealed that the region , which is now submerged by saltwater , was an extended archipelago between 71,000 to 59,000 year ago . It then transform into a fully expose shelf between 29,000 to 14,000 year ago , sport an inland ocean and a huge fresh water lake , encircle by high cliffs and deep gorges .
This timespan includes a pivotal moment in human chronicle . People firstset foot in Australiaaround 65,000 years ago after migrate southwards fromWallacea , the region of modern - day Indonesia . When they first arrived , the landmass would have include the since - submerged landscapes identify in this raw cogitation , suggesting that early human settlers range here .
The study notes that “ Australia has traditionally lagged behind many parts of the world with respect to exploration of the archaeology of submerge continental shelves , ” adding that maritime archaeology has kick off in other parts of the world , mostnotably around the Mediterranean .
However , archeologic evidence has shew that northernmost Australia was the host of many active cultures before the last Ice Age .
what is more , the researchers note that the prison term of global sea level rise is directly colligate to a significant uptick in the amount ofrock artand human - made rock artifacts found in the Kimberley and Arnhem Land regions . This , they say , could imply that human universe were retreating inland away from the since - submerged region .
Based on the size of the deep-set demesne and the telephone number of archaeological discoveries in Northern Australia , the team hypothesise that the long - lost archipelago could have potentially supported human populations ranging from 50,000 to 500,000 citizenry at various clip .
" The enticement to overlook the continental shelf margins of Late Pleistocene Sahul in discussions of early peopling and expansion risks simplism and misunderstanding of this pivotal period in history , " Kasih Norman , pass research worker from the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University , aver in astatement .
" Our demographic modeling showed a peak in population size of it at the height of the last ice age ~20,000 years ago , when the entire extent of the Northwest Shelf was dry land . This finding has now been supported by new hereditary research showing very large populations for the Tiwi Islanders – located just to the east of the cogitation area – at the elevation of the last gelid menstruation , " added Norman .
The uncovering has been dub the “ Aussie Atlantis ” , but that might be a picayune misleading . Researchers are yet to notice extended long - lost closure here , nor even the strong-arm remains of tools , fire , or other hints that world were once here .
Besides anything , the breakthrough of any submerged human settlements is regularly branded as that nation ’s own “ long - lost Atlantis ” . There ’s been " Egypt ’s Atlantis " , “ England ’s Atlantis ” , and “ the Welsh Atlantis ” . It ’s a great draw to get people concerned in a find , but not always accurate .
After all , serious archaeologistsaren’t even convincedthat the original Atlantis spoken about in ancient Greek texts was a existent position .
The Modern field is published in the journalQuaternary Science Reviews .
