A detailed surveying of the seabed north of Australia and its analysis showed that several thousand years ago there were abundant lands with different topography on which tens and even hundreds of thousands of people could live.
It is likely that the those who are now called indigenous Australians, crossed from this land to the mainland. The study was published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.
Australian scientists explained that at the beginning of the Pleistocene era, about 2.5 million years ago, Australia, New Guinea and the shelf lying between them formed a single large continent. But during the late Pleistocene (from about 127,000 to 11.7 thousand years ago), the state of the lands that are now known as the north-west shelf of Australia changed dramatically several times.
The scientists used the results of bathymetric surveys—that is, the bottom topography accurately recorded by topographers. They also took into account scattered data from other studies that complemented the complex of information: information about the types of sediments on the seabed and geological surveys, seismological studies and others.
In addition, data on global climate changes in the late Pleistocene were taken into account. They are also known from past research – it’s just that no one has used them to model the terrain in this part of Australia.
Above sea level
According to the calculations obtained, until 71 thousand years ago, the situation was approximately the same as now: the shelf was flooded. But then the sea level dropped sharply and was about 260 feet lower than today. Because of this, the former plateaus of the Sahul mainland turned into the islands of the Sahul archipelago – northwest of Australia. Then the sea level rose again and the islands were flooded.
The name of the continent Sahul was given by the name of the part of the shelf surrounding Australia.
“Off the northern coast of Australia, the Sahul shelf forms one of the largest shelf seas on the globe. Occupying the entire hall. Carpentaria and the shallow part of the Arafura Sea, the shelf extends for 700 miles from northwest to southeast and can be traced for 350 miles in a northeast-southwest direction. This shelf is still insufficiently explored. Its depth apparently does not exceed 100 m (and is usually in the range of 55–75 m). Coral reefs rise in places on the surface of the shelf. The Aru Islands, according to Fairbridge’s descriptions, are crossed by the beds of ancient rivers, now hidden under water.” F. Shepard in his Marine Geology, published in its second edition in 1963.
But 29 thousand years ago it fell even more – 390 feet below the modern level. This happened due to the peak of the Ice Age, when most of the water was trapped in ice shells. Even Australia, which is now a hot, sometimes arid continent, had ice caps. But at the site of the northwestern shelf, as a new study has shown, the living environment was quite comfortable.
It was for this period that it was possible to create the most complete “portrait”. The vast plain, which now rests on the seabed, has an area of approximately 154 thousand square miles – that is, twice the size of the islands of Great Britain. It was not only washed by the sea from the northwest, but also had an internal sea – now this is the Malita depression. It was similar to the modern Caspian, but, unlike it, it was still connected to external waters by a narrow channel. It is comparable in size to the Sea of Marmara in modern Turkey.
Surveys of the seabed show that these lands were not a plain – five systems of valleys and gorges are clearly visible. The beds of rivers and streams flowing into the Malita inland Sea are visible, their vertical banks rise 328–574 feet: it’s like a house of 30 floors or more. All these gorges had areas where huge reservoirs of fresh water could form.
In addition, not far from the sea there was a very large lake with an area of 772 square miles, supporting the entire freshwater ecosystem.
First Settlers
It was through this now flooded zone that the first people came to Australia. During the archipelagic period, they arrived from the north – from where Indonesia is now located.
“We argue that the presence of a vast archipelago facilitated the successful settlement of early marine explorers, creating a familiar environment for their marine lifestyle. The first interaction with a new continent would be in an environment type with which they were already familiar. Such a scenario would represent a gradual transition from a marine-adapted economy necessary for successful human settlement across the (island zone) to an economy necessary for expansion across a vast land-based continental territory with its unique flora and fauna,” the article says.
When the sea rose again, people retreated inland. When cooling began, the Ice Age and lowering sea levels returned to the plains that were once an archipelago.
At different periods, according to model calculations, this zone could provide living conditions for 50-500 thousand people simultaneously, taking into account the characteristics of their primitive standard of living. Although, scientists emphasize, it is impossible to verify exactly how many people actually lived here.
The fact that representatives of the same culture lived on the more northern islands, on the modern shelf and in the continental part of Sahul is evidenced by several factors. This is a single and unique technology for making stone axes, which are found only in Australia and New Guinea and their similarities are shown in the style of rock paintings. The difference between the languages spoken by the Aborigines in the Kimberley and Arnhem Land areas – that is, to the east and west of the flood plains – from all other languages of Australia, related to each other.
Vast plains on the site of the modern shelf remained for about 10 thousand years. And about 17 thousand years ago, sea levels began to rise, and as a result, the region was flooded. This happened in two stages: about 14 thousand years ago and 9-12 thousand years ago. People dispersed to the east and west, where archaeologists record a surge in the number of rock paintings of new styles and stone tools during the period of rising sea levels.
Look for Atlantis in Australia? The mystery of the step pyramids
Presumably, it was not by chance that step pyramids began to be built. When the giants of Atlantis founded their civilization on the island (now Australia), they needed a Shrine that should stand in its center. As a result, they simply dismantled the first pyramid, which was erected back in the time of Adam (now there are only the remains of the base and the underground part).
They erected the pyramid using a stepwise technology, as if at odds with the official one. The further history of the Great Atlanteans is covered in darkness, but it is clear that they began to copulate again with the daughters of men, as a result the races of the Aztecs, Olmecs, etc. appeared. So these nations began to build exactly the same step pyramids, imitating the Great Atlanteans.
Australia could be a huge grave of Atlanteans, and Mount Uluru a tombstone obelisk. Proof that Australia was Atlantis can be found in the caves of Mount Uluru; there are frescoes there describing the moment of a cosmic catastrophe, incidentally associated with the disappearance of the planet Phaeton.
The amazing aborigines of Australia, apparently witnessed the fall of the Great Atlanteans; now they are, as it were, the guardians of the Sacred Mountain and the myths associated with it. But make no mistake: the dead themselves lie under a thick layer of soil that fell from the sky and covered the deeds of the Great Ones with a hundred-meter layer, and the island itself increased to almost the size of the mainland.
The fresco of a cosmic catastrophe depicts the third planet of the solar system, when it is exposed to a certain huge object.
