A land in Australia, which has drowned, was once Aboriginal hotspot in ice age

Archaeologists carried out an analysis of more than 4,000 stone artefacts which have been found on an island off northwestern Australia. The findingshelped in creating a picture of the kind of life the Aboriginals lived tens of thousands of years ago.

In the discovery, it was revealed that the Indigenous peoplehad "long-term connections" with modern-day Australia, according to David Zeanah, who is an anthropologist at California State University, Sacramento. Zeanah is also the lead author of a new study which described the analysis.

As per the study, which was published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews on April 1, the diverse artefacts discovered on the island also found intriguing insights regarding the movement of people between the mainland and the island of Australia, especially when the last ice age peaked between 29,000 and 19,000 years ago.

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In those times, the sea levels were very low and exposed the continental shelf between Australia and what is today called Barrow Island.

Speaking to Live Science, Zeanah said that thousands of years ago it would have created the high plateau of a vast, continuous plain which runs across 4,200 square miles (10,800 square km).

The archaeologists were already aware of the people who once lived on the island because of a trove of archaeological evidence which was left behind in rock shelters,once known as Boodie Cave.

Scientists explore open-air deposits in Barrow Island

However, for the new research, the scientists tried to understand beyond the island's caves and explore various open-air deposits present across Barrow Island.

In the next three years, the scientists looked into 4,400 slicing, cutting and grinding tools from a mix of sites. The researchers were surprised by the variety in the compositions of the artefacts.

Most of the tools discovered in the caves were made out of limestone which is found in abundance on the island.

Those found at the open-air sites were mostly made from rocks, which included igneous and sandstone, and matched sources found on mainland Australia.

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An archaeologist at The University of Queensland in Australia Tiina Manne said that the findings showed "a surprising amount of diversity in stone tool composition over a relatively small area."

Zeanah said that diversity is significant since it gives more details regarding the people who went to Barrow Island.

"The open sites provide clear links to the mainland geologies, and that infers that people were using the coastal plain that's underwater now," said Zeanah.

(With inputs from agencies)