ECHOES OF ATLANTIS

OVER HALF A MILLION PEOPLE MAY HAVE LIVED IN THE LOST LANDSCAPES NORTH OF AUSTRALIA... BEFORE THEY WERE CONSUMED BY THE OCEAN

- by DR CLAIRE ASHER

In the works of Plato, a Greek philosopher who lived around 2,400 years ago, the island of Atlantis was said to have been drowned in the Atlantic Ocean after the hubris of its people angered the Gods. Although Atlantis was fictional, the idea that entire civilisations can disappear beneath the waves has intrigued us for millennia. Now, innovative technologies are revealing real sites around the world that our ancestors were forced to abandon before they were swallowed by the oceans.

One such 'Atlantis' lies to the north of Australia. At the height of the last Ice Age, around 21,000 years ago, the continent of Australia was around 20-per-cent larger than it is today. With more water locked up in ice sheets and glaciers, sea levels were around 120m (394ft) lower. This exposed an additional 2,000,000km² (around 772,000 sq miles) of land that connected Australia to New Guinea in the north and Tasmania in the south, creating a supercontinent known as Sahul.

Sahul's Northwest Shelf was a vast landmass that covered 400,000km² (154,000 sq miles) – just over 1.5 times the size of the UK – and joined onto the modern-day Kimberley region in northern Western Australia, and the Arnhem Land region in Australia's Northern Territory. Many archaeologists have argued that these ancient landscapes were unproductive environments and weren't used much by the early Aboriginal people. But new research is challenging this long-held assumption.

The now-submerged region may also hold the secrets to one of the biggest puzzles in anthropology. Lying next to some of the oldest known archaeological sites in Australia, Sahul's Northwest Shelf has long been recognised as a likely point of entry for the first people who made their way to the continent, some 65,000 years ago.

Now, the race is on to uncover the hidden treasures of this Atlantis-like land, before they're destroyed forever.

REVEALING LOST LANDSCAPES