Evaluating the Deep Time Archaeological Potential of the Submerged Rottnest (Wadjemup) Shelf, Southwestern Australia

Since the peak of the last glacial maximum, approximately 2.12 million square kilometres of Australia’s continental land mass was inundated by post-glacial sea-level rise. Much of this area would have been inhabited by people. Where cultural material has survived transgression, it has the potential to address significant archaeological questions such as human arrivals and dispersal across the continent, past strategies of occupation, and resource usage. The scientific study of submerged terrestrial landscapes around the Australian coast is at a relatively early stage, with most published research focused in the north and north-west of Australia. There is now a need to undertake baseline studies in different environmental and cultural regions of Australia to further develop a framework for the location and management of submerged archaeological sites and landscapes on the Australian continental shelf. In this article, we use terrestrial analogy as the basis for a regional scale Geographic Information Systems predictive model for the identification of areas with favourable preservation potential on the Rottnest (Wadjemup) Shelf, southwestern Australia. The results illustrate how the modern physical environment and regional archaeological record of the Swan Coastal Plain can help to identify areas of higher preservation potential in the search for the submerged cultural heritage of southwestern Australia’s first peoples. This article provides a platform for further archaeological investigation of submerged cultural landscapes in southwestern Australia and the development of submerged landscape studies around the continent.