NHÀ NGHIÊN CỨU KASIH NORMAN - ĐẠI HỌC GRIFFITH QUEENSLAND- VỪA KHÁM PHÁ VÙNG ĐẤT RỘNG LỚN "NORTHWEST SHELF OF AUSTRALIA" ĐÃ BỊ CHÌM DƯỚI BIỂN TỪ 65 NGÀN NĂM TRƯỚC./-Mt68

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A landmass which was once home to up to half a million people has been discovered off the coast of northern Australia.

The now-submerged continental shelf was a vast, habitable landscape for much of the past 65,000 years, covering some 390,000 square kilometres (around 242,300 miles) – an area bigger than New Zealand

This split the supercontinent of Sahul into New Guinea and Australia, and cut Tasmania off from the mainland.A map showing where the continent of Sahul once stood ((Kanguole via Wikipedia))The now-submerged continental shelves of Australia were thought to be environmentally unproductive and so largely ignored by original indigenous communities.

“But mounting archaeological evidence shows this assumption is incorrect,” the researchers wrote.

“Many large islands off Australia's coast – islands that once formed part of the continental shelves – show signs of occupation before sea levels rose.”

This sea existed for 10,000 years (27,000 to 17,000 years ago), with a surface area greater than 18,000 square kilometres, according to the archaeologists.A map of the shelf showing various geological features ((US Geological Survey.))© Provided by Indy 100

The Northwest Shelf could have supported between 50,000 and 500,000 inhabitants at various times over the last 65,000 years, according to modelling conducted by Norman and her team.

The population would have peaked at the height of the last Ice Age, around 20,000 years ago, when the entire shelf was dry land.

However, at the end of this Ice Age, rising sea levels drowned the shelf, forcing its residents to flee as waters encroached on once-productive landscapes.

“Retreating populations would have been forced together as available land shrank,” the experts wrote, noting that this resulted in “new rock art styles” appearing in both the Kimberley and Arnhem lands.

“Rising sea levels and the drowning of the landscape is also recorded in the oral histories of First Nations people from all around the coastal margin,” they added, pointing out that these histories are thought to have been passed down for “over 10,000 years”.

“This latest revelation of the complex and intricate dynamics of First Nations people responding to rapidly changing climates lends growing weight to the call for more Indigenous-led environmental management in this country and elsewhere,” they concluded their statement.

“As we face an uncertain future together, deep-time Indigenous knowledge and experience will be essential for successful adaptation.”/=