Last Glacial Vegetation of Sundaland

Indonesia in recent years have seen an increasing number of supporters for the idea of Atlantis being located in the vicinity of today’s archipelago, prior to the ending of the last Ice Age, on the submerged continental shelf now frequently referred to as Sundaland.

With the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, the immense glaciers that covered the whole of the northern half of North America and Eurasia melted away. Their waters drained to the sea, whose level rose by the estimated amount of about 100 – 150 meters quoted above.

The Pleistocene – a name which is Greek for “most recent” – is also called Anthropozoic Era or Quaternary Era or, yet, the Ice Age. During the Pleistocene and, more exactly, during the glacial episodes that happened at intervals of about 20 thousand years, sea level was about 100 – 150 meters below the present value. With this, a large coastal strip – the so-called Continental Platform (with a width of about 200 kilometers) – became exposed, forming land bridges that interconnected many islands and regions. The most dramatic of such exposures took place in the region of Indonesia, precisely the spot where humanity first flourished.

It was in Indonesia and the neighboring lands that man, after emigrating from the semi-deserted savannas of Africa, first found the ideal climatic conditions for development, and it was there that he invented agriculture and civilization. All this took place during the Pleistocene, the last of the geological eras, which ended a scant 11,600 years ago. Though long by human standards, this is but a brief moment in geological terms.

In his book Eden in the East: The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia, Oppenheimer makes a case that the rise in ocean levels that accompanied the waning of the ice age – as much as 150 m – during the period 14,000 – 7,000 years ago, must be taken into account when trying to understand the flow of genes and culture in Eurasia. Citing evidence from geology, archaeology, genetics, linguistics, and folklore, he hypothesizes that the Southeast Asian subcontinent of Sundaland was home to a rich and original culture that was dispersed when Sundaland was mostly submerged and its population moved westward. According to Oppenheimer, Sundaland’s culture may have reached India and Mesopotamia, becoming the root for the innovative cultures that developed in those areas. He also suggests that the Austronesian languages originate from Sundaland and that a Neolithic Revolution may have started there.

As the Ice Age ended, there were three catastrophic and rapid rises in sea level. The last of these, which finished shortly before the start of civilization in Mesopotamia, may have been the one that was remembered. These three floods drowned the coastal cultures and all the flat continental shelves of Southeast Asia. As the sea rolled in, there was a mass emigration from the sinking continent. These flood-driven refugees carried their domestic animals with them in large ocean-going canoes in all directions. The networks of sea trade, created by their settlements around the Indian Ocean, fertilized the Neolithic cultures of China, India, Mesopotamia and Egypt.

The Southeast Asian contributions to the building of the first cities in Mesopotamia may not have been solely technological. While they may have brought the new ideas and skills of megalithic construction cereal domestication, sea-faring, astronomy, navigation, trade and commerce, they may also have introduced the tools to harness and control the labor of the farmers and artisans. These included magic, religion, and concepts of state, kingship and social hierarchy.

The most solid facts come from oceanographic research of the last decade. It now appears that the great rise in sea level after the last Ice Age, known about for many years, was not gradual; three sudden ice-melts, the last of which was only 8,000 years ago, had catastrophic effects on tropical coasts with flat continental shelves. Rapid land loss was compounded by super waves, set off by cracks in the earth’s crust as the weight of ice shifted to the seas.

[almightyyt]

Imagine all the diversity the world has lost due to rising sea levels, at least a couple diversities

[zahra_callista]

Bayangin kalau zaman es Glacial terakhir ni gk meleleh dan tetap terjadi sampai saat ni kemu gkinan Sejarah Indonesia, Flora dan Fauna serta Negara tetangga Asean lain seperti Singapura, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand dan lainnya bakalan berubah drastis dan berbeda jauh sma kenyataan saat ni

[Random-duet]

Di tempat yang tenggelam, dulu ada peradaban ga ya ? 🤔