Researchers Link Aboriginal Stories to Coastlines Lost 7,000-13,000 Years Ago as Critics Challenge Proof
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Jun 7
Researchers Link Aboriginal Stories to Coastlines Lost 7,000-13,000 Years Ago as Critics Challenge Proof
1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jun 7
Summary
21 coastal Aboriginal traditions collected by Patrick Nunn and Nicholas Reid were matched to post-Ice Age sea-level rise, leading them to argue some stories preserve memories of land drowned 7,250 to 13,070 years ago.
Their dating method estimates how much now-submerged land each story requires, then maps that landscape onto established Australian sea-level curves; if valid, the accounts could rank among the world's oldest dated oral traditions.
The claim turns on whether oral traditions can remain stable across 300 to 400 generations, with Reid arguing kin-based retelling and cross-checking in Aboriginal knowledge systems could act as long-term error correction.
Critics including historian David Henige and archaeologist Peter Hiscock say the theory cannot be independently verified because the dating works only if the stories are already assumed to describe real geological events.
The debate is sharpened by the fact many accounts were written down by colonial-era observers, leaving scholars to weigh a striking fit between stories and drowned coastlines against the lack of definitive proof.