Millions once lived on a land larger than New Zealand. Rising seas swallowed it

A research study has revealed that the now-submerged northwest Sahul region of Australia was once home to around half-a-million people.

The Northwest Shelf of Sahul, which had the combined landmass of Australia and New Guinea at times of lower sea level, was a vast area of land in the Late Pleistocene epoch (71,000–59,000 years ago).

This vast region covered around 390,000 square kilometres, an area one-and-a-half times larger than New Zealand is today, states the study published in Quaternary Science Reviews on Dec 16.

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Rapid rise global sea level brought drastic changes

The study states that this shelf potentially supported populations ranging from 50,000 to 500,000 people at various times.

But due to the rapid rise in global sea level rises between 14,500–14,100 years ago and between 12,000 and 9,000 years ago, around 50 per cent of the Northwest Shelf was inundated, causing profound changes in the space of human life spans.

The study argues that these calamitic events might have triggered the retreat of human populations ahead of the encroaching coastline, evident in peaks of occupational intensity atarchaeological sitesacross the Kimberley and Arnhem, and the sudden appearance of distinctive new rock art styles in both regions.

"The presence of this extensive archipelago likely facilitated the successful dispersal of the first maritime explorers from Wallacea—the region of modern-day Indonesia—providing a familiar environment for their adaptation to the vast continent of Sahul," Lead researcher Kasih Norman said.

Study highlights need to study early human migration

The study emphasisesthe critical role that the now-submerged continental margins played in early human expansions.

"The temptation to overlook the continental shelf margins of Late Pleistocene Sahul in discussions of early peopling and expansion risks oversimplification and misunderstanding of this pivotal period in history," Norman added.

The research concludes that the implications of these findings highlight the need to reevaluate the study of early human migration and the impact of climate change on ancient populations.

(With inputs from agencies)