Australia’s oldest underwater archaeology reveals ancient life
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Researchers from Flinders University, The University of Western Australia, James Cook University, and the University of York (UK) partnered with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and its rangers in northwestern Australia to investigate ancient life beneath the sea.
The team discovered stone artifacts and evidence of a freshwater spring within a submerged landscape off the coast of Murujuga, a World Heritage, listed region. These findings demonstrate that Aboriginal cultural heritage extends onto the seabed and wasn’t limited to isolated discoveries.
The discoveries indicate that people lived in the area at least 9,000 years ago, and artifacts may be considerably older. The submerged landscape, which covered more than 2 million square kilometers of Australia’s continental shelf, once included a network of connected land, freshwater sources, and river channels. People transported resources, like stone sourced from Rosemary Island, across this landscape before rising sea levels reshaped the coastline after the last ice age.
Vincent Adams, director of Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, explained that the Ngarda-Ngarli people have cared for the land for at least 50,000 years and that this research strengthens their ability to protect the entire cultural landscape, including areas now underwater. The partnership between researchers and Indigenous rangers was essential to the project, combining scientific expertise with Traditional Owner knowledge and on-the-ground skills. Researchers hope to continue identifying and protecting this largely unexplored submerged heritage.
