Ancient submerged settlement with half a million people found near Australia

An international team of scientists led by archaeologist Kasih Norman has discovered that the now submerged northwestern shelf of Sahul was densely populated by people between 71,000 and 9,000 years ago.

The Sahul is a rugged landmass that included Australia and New Guinea and existed at a time when sea levels were lower. The area of the currently flooded territories is 400 thousand square kilometers, which is 1.6 times the area of Great Britain, Phys.org reports.

Also read: Where the remains of the Titanic passengers disappeared: scientists have made a stunning discovery

The topography of the ocean floor showed that 71,000-59,000 years ago, the northwest shelf was a large archipelago. 29,000-14,000 years ago, the area turned into a continental shelf.

According to demographic modeling conducted by experts, from 50 thousand to 500 thousand people lived here at different times. The rapid rise in sea level 14,500-14,100 years ago and 12,000-9,000 years ago led to partial flooding of the northwestern shelf.

This probably provoked the resettlement of populations to other lands.These results indicate that the northwestern shelf of Sakhul was an important center of human activity during the Paleolithic period.

Scientists plan to continue their research to get a more detailed picture of the settlement of this region.

As a reminder, luxuriously decorated tombs dating back to the 2nd and 4th centuries AD were found in Italy.

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