The city of Atlantis may be just a legend, but the myth could become reality as an Australian colony believed to have been inhabited at the end of the Paleolithic period has been found underwater.
This was the result of a study published in the “Quaternary Science Reviews”. According to scientists, several thousand people (between 50,000 and 500,000) settled in the 647.5 km2 area before it was covered by water, the New York Post reported.
The first half of the colony in the Kimberley region is believed to have drowned between 12,000 and 9,000 years ago, during the first period of rapid sea level rise around the world.
“This likely led to a decline in human populations, leading to spikes in occupational intensity at archaeological sites,” the researchers emphasized in their study.
Scientists intend to continue their research to learn more about the history of this colony.
“Today, submerged continental margins clearly played an important role in the early spread of humans around the world. “The growth of underwater archeology in Australia will contribute to a growing global picture of early human migrations and the effects of climate change on human populations in the Late Pleistocene,” the study says.