By Melissa Smith
Underwater archaeologists in Australia recently found 270 Aboriginal artifacts and stone tools that are between 7,000 and 8,500 years old.
The ancient relics were found at two archaeological sites off Australia’s northwest coast in an area that was above water before rising sea levels flooded it after the last Ice Age, which submerged 30 percent of Australia’s coastline, or about 770,000 square miles of inhabited land.
The archaeologists’ findings, published earlier this month, are Australia’s oldest known Aboriginal artifacts. One artifact dated back 8,500 years, and the other 269 tools are at least 7,000 years old, according to radiocarbon dating. The discovery gives researchers new information about the life and culture of Aboriginal people before seas rose.
Evidence shows people have inhabited Australia for 65,000 years, and it’s likely there are many ancient Aboriginal sites beneath the sea.
“This discovery redrew the map of what archaeology can do on this continent,” Jonathan Benjamin, an archaeologist at Flinders University and lead author of the study, tells Business Insider. “We’ve demonstrated that if you look in the right places, you can find archaeological evidence that survived rising sea levels.”
It took Benjamin’s team three years to narrow down the archaeological sites. Ultimately, they decided on an area of sea off the Murujuga coast that’s known for its rich history — more than 1 million petroglyphs, or ancient rock drawings, have been found in the area, some dating back 40,000 years.
“We knew there was dense cultural and archaeological landscape here, and the archipelago has lots of sheltered underwater nooks and crannies to go looking in,” Benjamin says.
The team worked with Aboriginal people still living in the area to find the artifacts. After using plane-mounted LiDAR lasers to find shallow areas where sediment and silt wouldn’t be too prevalent, the team used sonar-equipped boats to scan for objects. Finally, they sent divers down to investigate.
At a site called Cape Bruguieres Channel, just eight feet below sea level, two of Benjamin’s students found cutting and grinding tools encrusted with coral, sea sponges, tubeworms and algae. But despite being in the ocean for thousands of years, the artifacts still had sharp edges.
At another site, a freshwater spring about 50 feet below sea level called Flying Foam Passage, divers found the tool dating back least 8,500 years old.
At each site, photographers marked and photographed the artifacts found, but they only brought a few tools back to the surface.
“Best practice in underwater archaeology is not to disturb the site because then you lose context,” Benjamin says.
After the tools were dated and scanned in high-resolution in a lab, the team returned them to Murujuga’s Aboriginal community.
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