Sea level rise drowned a vast habitable area of north-western Australia driving long-term cultural change
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1. Introduction
Drowned archaeological sites demonstrating global human use of now-submerged continental shelves have been found in the Baltic Sea (Grøn and Skaarup, 2004), north-western Europe (Bicket and Tizzard, 2015; Gaffney et al., 2017; Tizzard et al., 2014), the Mediterranean coast (Galili et al., 1993; Sturt et al., 2018), North and South America (Bayón and Politis, 2014; López et al., 2016; Sturt et al., 2018), South Africa (Werz and Flemming, 2001), and on the Australian shelf (Benjamin et al., 2020, 2023).
Aside from an early pioneering study (Flemming, 1982, 1983), Australia ..."
3.2. Human carrying capacity
Potential carrying capacity (K) as simulated from the hindcasted Earth system model expressed in units of people the Northwest Shelf was potentially capable of supporting per 1000-year interval over Marine Isotope Stage 4 (71 ka–59 ka), 3 (58 ka–30 ka) and 2 (29 ka–14 ka) suggests K fluctuated between 100,000 and almost 600,000 depending on the assumption of...
5. Conclusion
Our findings that the Northwest Shelf of Sahul likely contained a rich and varied sequence of mosaic environments through Marine Isotope Stages 4–2 have implications for the successful transition made by the first Australians from island Wallacea to Sahul. It is clear that the temptation to ignore the continental shelf margins of Late Pleistocene Sahul in debates of early peopling and expansion carries the risk of both oversimplifying and misunderstanding important elements of this period of history."
B Davidson
1. Introduction
Drowned archaeological sites demonstrating global human use of now-submerged continental shelves have been found in the Baltic Sea (Grøn and Skaarup, 2004), north-western Europe (Bicket and Tizzard, 2015; Gaffney et al., 2017; Tizzard et al., 2014), the Mediterranean coast (Galili et al., 1993; Sturt et al., 2018), North and South America (Bayón and Politis, 2014; López et al., 2016; Sturt et al., 2018), South Africa (Werz and Flemming, 2001), and on the Australian shelf (Benjamin et al., 2020, 2023).
Aside from an early pioneering study (Flemming, 1982, 1983), Australia ..."
3.2. Human carrying capacity
Potential carrying capacity (K) as simulated from the hindcasted Earth system model expressed in units of people the Northwest Shelf was potentially capable of supporting per 1000-year interval over Marine Isotope Stage 4 (71 ka–59 ka), 3 (58 ka–30 ka) and 2 (29 ka–14 ka) suggests K fluctuated between 100,000 and almost 600,000 depending on the assumption of...
5. Conclusion
Our findings that the Northwest Shelf of Sahul likely contained a rich and varied sequence of mosaic environments through Marine Isotope Stages 4–2 have implications for the successful transition made by the first Australians from island Wallacea to Sahul. It is clear that the temptation to ignore the continental shelf margins of Late Pleistocene Sahul in debates of early peopling and expansion carries the risk of both oversimplifying and misunderstanding important elements of this period of history."
B Davidson