Perth / Western Australia

The new discovery of ancient stone artifacts at an underwater spring off the Western Australia Pilbara coast has confirmed the location is a submerged archaeological site where more ancient Aboriginal artifacts are likely hidden beneath the sea.

The artifacts, which are thought to be at least 9,000 years old, have been discovered at the Flying Foam Passage underwater spring in Murujuga The passage was occupied in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene before it was drowned by sea level rise.

Flying Foam Passage is one of two ancient cultural sites where researchers previously uncovered artifacts through the Deep History of Sea Country project, through a series of surveys that provided evidence of Aboriginal activity preserved on what is now the seabed.

"We've now identified five stone artifacts at Flying Foam Passage and confirmed the freshwater spring is definitely an archaeological site. We had a narrow window of 40 minutes for each dive when current speeds were low enough to search the passage and our scientific divers focused on locations where fortunately the cultural artifacts were waiting to be discovered."