Stone artefacts on submerged land surfaces: A response to Larcombe et al.

Larcombe et al. (2025) challenge the work of the Deep History of Sea Country team regarding the provenance and mobility of lithic artefacts on the seafloor of Murujuga, Northwestern Australia. They propose that these artefacts were originally deposited on terrestrial Holocene landforms, and subsequently transported into the marine environment, challenging our interpretation of primary deposition on pre-inundation land surfaces.

The authors largely base their conclusions on a hydrodynamic model and a 32-year satellite-derived shoreline dataset. Here we highlight the critical shortcomings in their approach including the application of a low resolution and poorly validated regional hydrodynamic model to infer current speeds at the local site level and by extension the transport of lithic artefacts at the seabed, and the analysis and interpretation of satellite derived shorelines which, when scrutinised, were found to be unrepresentative of real-world conditions.

By emphasizing the importance of rigorous field validation and contextual site analyses, we reaffirm the preservation and integrity of Murujuga's underwater cultural heritage, while challenging the scientific rigor of the conclusions presented by Larcombe et al.