Ancient Coasts, Living Memory: Aboriginal Stories as Clues to Post-Ice Age Seas
Some Australian Aboriginal stories may describe coastlines flooded as sea levels rose after the last Ice Age (roughly 7,000–13,000 years ago). Researchers calculate when the land could have looked that way by matching the minimum water depth required for the stories to be literally true with known sea‑level rise, yielding dates around 7,250–13,070 years ago. While this could make these among the oldest reliably dated oral traditions, many scholars caution that oral memories are hard to verify over millennia, and the evidence rests on interpreting secondhand accounts written down by colonial observers. Proponents argue that shared motifs across regions and a storytelling system with cross-checking could preserve accurate details, but the claim remains contested and not proven.
