Earth:Sahul
Sahul (/sə.ˈhuːl/, sə-HOOL), also called Sahul-land, Meganesia, Papualand and Greater Australia,[1] was a paleocontinent that encompassed the modern-day landmasses of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands.[2][3][4][5][6]
Sahul was in the south-western Pacific Ocean, located approximately north to south between the Equator and the 44th parallel south and west to east between the 112th and the 152nd meridians east.[2] Sahul was separated from Sunda to its west by the Wallacean Archipelago.[2][7] At its largest, when ocean levels were at their lowest, it was approximately 10,600,000 square kilometres (4,100,000 sq mi) in size.[note 1][2]
Parts of Sahul repeatedly emerged and submerged throughout the Pleistocene epoch, beginning around 2.6 million years ago.[8] Glacial cycles—initially paced at ~41,000 years and later at ~100,000 years—drove sea-level fluctuations of up to ~120 m.[9] Each lowstand exposed the Sahul continental shelf, with reconstructions showing land connections dating back at least ~250,000 years ago, and likely much earlier.[10] The most recent rise in sea level, at the close of the last Ice Age, produced the modern configuration: New Guinea separated from mainland Australia about 8,000 years ago, and Tasmania about 6,000 years ago.[11]
Sahul hosted a large variety of unique fauna that changed independently from the rest of the world.[12] Most notably nearly all mammals on Sahul were marsupials including a range of browsers, burrowers, scavengers and predators; bats and rodents represented the only placental mammals.[12]
It is estimated humans first migrated to Sahul at least 65,000 years ago, making the ocean crossing from Sunda through Wallacea.[13] Archaeologist Glenn Summerhayes led excavations in the Ivane Valley in the Papua New Guinea highlands finding that the sites were occupied from 49,000 to 44,000 years ago.[14][15] From Sahul humans spread throughout Oceania.[3]
Usage
The name Sahul is used by archeologists, and Meganesia tends to be used by zoogeographers.[4] The name Greater Australia has been used, and has been criticised as "cartographic imperialism" because it places greater emphasis upon what is now Australia at the expense of New Guinea.[6]
See also
Notes
References
Citations
- ↑ Gillespie, Richard (January 2002). "Dating the First Australians". Radiocarbon 44 (2): 455–472. doi:10.1017/S0033822200031830. Bibcode: 2002Radcb..44..455G.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 White & O'Connell (1982), p. 6.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 O'Connor & Hiscock (2018), p. 26.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Groves (1996), p. 83.
- ↑ Oliver (1961), p. 5.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ballard (1993), p. 20.
- ↑ O’Connell, Allen & Hawkes (2010), p. 57.
- ↑ "Sahul". Sahul. Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Australia. Retrieved August 23, 2025.
- ↑ Huybers, P. (2007). "Glacial variability over the last two million years: An extended depth-derived age model, continuous obliquity pacing, and the 100,000-year problem". Quaternary Science Reviews 11 (1): 16707. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-96372-x. PMID 34408237.
- ↑ Voris, H.K. (2001). "Maps of Pleistocene sea levels in Southeast Asia: shorelines, river systems and time durations". Journal of Biogeography 27 (5): 1153–1167. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00489.x. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00489.x. Retrieved August 23, 2025.
- ↑ Kennett, Chopping & Blewett (2018), p. 4.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 White & O'Connell (1982), p. 12.
- ↑ https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/evidence-of-first-peoples [bare URL]
- ↑ Shaw, Ben; Ford, Anne; Gaffney, Dylan (2024-05-09), "Introduction: Glenn Summerhayes’ forty years in the south seas", Forty Years in the South Seas: Archaeological Perspectives on the Human History of Papua New Guinea and the Western Pacific Region, ANU Press, pp. 1–18, ISBN 978-1-76046-643-5, https://doi.org/10.22459/ta57.2024.01, retrieved 14 June 2026
- ↑ "Early humans lived in PNG highlands 50,000 years ago". Reuters. 1 October 2010. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-png-humans-idUSTRE68T4X620100930/.
Bibliography
- Ballard, Chris (1993). "Stimulating minds to fantasy? A critical etymology for Sahul". Sahul in review: Pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia. Canberra: Australian National University. pp. 17–23. ISBN 0-7315-1540-4. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/251698/1/b18640102.pdf.
- Groves, Colin P. (1996). "Hovering on the brink: nearly but not quite getting to Australia". in Rousham, Emily; Freedman, Leonard. Perspectives in human biology: volume 2 humans in the Australasian region. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co, Pte Ltd. pp. 83–87. ISBN 981-02-3023-0.
- Kennett, B. L. N.; Chopping, R.; Blewett, R. (2018). The Australian continent: a geophysical synthesis. Canberra: Australian National University Press. ISBN 9781760462475. https://books.google.com/books?id=YxFxDwAAQBAJ.
- O’Connell, James F.; Allen, Jim; Hawkes, Kristen (2010). "Pleistocene Sahul and the origins of seafaring". The global origins and development of seafaring. Cambridge: MacDonald Institute for Archeological Research. pp. 57–68. ISBN 978-1-902937-52-6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281283058.
- O'Connor, Sue; Hiscock, Peter (2018). "The people of Sahul and near Oceania". The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 26–45. ISBN 978-0-19-992507-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=JZRODwAAQBAJ&q=prehistoric+continent+sahul.
- Oliver, Douglas L. (1961). The Pacific Islands. New York: The American Museum of Natural History.
- Thomas, Nicholas (June 2021). "From Sunda to Sahul: the first crossings and early settlement of the Pacific". Natural History (Research Triangle Park: Natural History Magazine, Inc.). ISSN 0028-0712. https://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/113822/from-sunda-to-sahul. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
- White, J. Peter; O'Connell, James F. (1982). A prehistory of Australia, New Guinea and Sahul. Sydney: Academic Press Australia. ISBN 0-12-746750-5.
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