Do you remember the story about Atlantis, the lost civilization that is now under the sea? Something similar happened in Indonesia, where a team of researchers has carried out the marine discovery of a civilization belonging to ancient history, which is underwater. The world of archaeology is to be congratulated as it represents a breakthrough in its research.
Atlantis, the lost civilization
Atlantis, is a legendary civilization, described by the Greek philosopher Plato, which is said to have been destroyed by a cataclysm and sunk into the sea. The inhabitants were considered semi-gods who managed to become the first naval force. Located in the Mediterranean near the Spanish coast and also between Madeira and the Canary Islands, we never managed to locate with precision.
Homo erectus
Homo erectus evolved about two million years ago and was the first known human species to walk fully erect. According to the latest studies, the last Homo erectus was located on the island of Java, in Indonesia, 100,000 years ago, when they had long since disappeared from the rest of the planet. What does this mean? that at some point in history, our species, Homo Sapiens Sapiens and Homo erectus coincided in time.
New discoveries
In 2011, a study led by Harold Berghuis, an archaeologist at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, found the skull of a Homo erectus between the islands of Java and Madura. The remains found under layers of sand and silt, dated back to about 140,000 years ago, which did not correspond to the timeline of the existence of this Homo that was understood as valid until today.
rom 2011 until today, researchers have not been able to obtain more information about the remains. They have only been able to state their age and species. The investigator, Berghuis, said that “his period is marked by significant morphological diversity and mobility among hominid populations in the region”, which makes it difficult to make the results of research work more accurate.
A new species has been found
Given this difficulty in investigating and discovering the new dates, some researchers have even claimed that it is evidence of a lost world. It is called Sundaland, and it is a prehistoric land mass that extended into what is now Southeast Asia, which due to its characteristics is believed to have been home to numerous civilizations and now its underwater. You may be wondering, was there any other discovery of interest throughout this investigation? The answer to that question is yes.
The skull of the new civilization of homo erectus was not the only thing that found the team from Berghuis. More than 6,000 specimens of 36 different animal species were also discovered. The list includes buffalo, reindeer, elephants and Komodo dragons. The condition of the remains showed marks indicating hunting, leading researchers to believe that Homo erectus had developed extraordinary hunting skills. According to the study, life conditions of Homo erectus were favored by the perennial rivers of Sundaland, which had a fairly dry climate.
Underwater civilizations
Just as millions of years ago all the continents formed a single landmass called Pangaea, sea level has also changed. It has been around 14,000 and 7,000 years since the sea rose to 120 meters due to melting glaciers. This was the reason why Sundaland was buried under the sea, forcing the communities that inhabited there to migrate to higher areas or islands that were not affected. When you believe that we know everything about our ancestors, these studies come out and turn everything around. Thanks to Archeology and its studies, we are drawing a more accurate timeline every time, obtaining knowledge and valuable information about where we come from.
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