6 Fascinating Facts About Sundaland, the Lost Continent of the Nusantara
Scientists have discovered Sundaland, a submerged continent that once stretched across the Malay Peninsula, Australia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Bali. Before being swallowed by rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age, Sundaland was home to approximately half a million people with an advanced civilization. This discovery is astonishing, as Sundaland seemed to have vanished without a trace. From a scientific perspective, this finding provides new insights into the origins and history of human civilization, particularly in Asia and Australia.
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Compiled from various sources, here are six intriguing facts about Sundaland:
1. The Name Sundaland
The name “Sunda” has ancient origins, appearing in Ptolemy’s geographical records around 150 AD. In an 1852 publication, British navigator George Windsor and his Earl promoted the concept of a “great Asian bank” based on the shared mammalian characteristics found in Java, Borneo, and Sumatra.
According to Academic Accelerator, explorers and scientists began mapping the seas of Southeast Asia in 1852. In 1921, Dutch geologist Gustav Mollengraf proposed that the uniform depth of the ocean floor indicated an ancient peneplain—lowlands shaped by prolonged erosion—resulting from repeated flooding as ice caps melted. Mollengraf also identified an ancient drainage system, now submerged, that once carried water across the region during periods of low sea levels.
The term “Sundaland” was first introduced in 1949 by Reinout Willem van Bemmelen in his book Geography of Indonesia, based on research conducted during World War II.
2. The Size of Sundaland
Sundaland is a biogeographical region in Southeast Asia corresponding to a vast landmass exposed during periods of low sea levels over the past 2.6 million years. It includes Indonesian islands such as Bali, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and nearby smaller islands, along with the Gulf of Thailand, the South China Sea, and the Malay Peninsula on the Asian mainland. The total area of Sundaland is approximately 1,800,000 km².
The size of Sundaland has fluctuated dramatically over the last two million years, with its present landmass being about half of its maximum extent. The western and southern boundaries of Sundaland are clearly marked by the deep Sunda Trench and the Indian Ocean, while its eastern boundary is defined by the Wallace Line. Identified by Alfred Russel Wallace, this line marks the easternmost range of Asian mammalian fauna, separating the Indomalayan and Australasian regions. Islands east of the Wallace Line, known as Wallacea, are considered a separate biogeographical zone associated with Australasia.
Determining Sundaland’s northern boundary is more complex, but a phytogeographic transition around 9°N latitude is generally considered its limit. Most of Sundaland was last exposed during the Last Glacial Maximum, approximately 110,000 to 12,000 years ago, when sea levels dropped more than 30-40 meters, creating land bridges that connected Borneo, Java, and Sumatra to the Malay Peninsula and mainland Asia. During most of the past 800,000 years, Sundaland was exposed due to low sea levels, while during the Late Pliocene, higher sea levels resulted in a smaller landmass than seen today.
Sundaland began submerging around 18,000 years ago until about 5,000 BC. During the Last Ice Age, sea levels dropped by approximately 120 meters, exposing the entire Sunda Shelf. Its submersion provides a remarkable illustration of the relationship between solid Earth and its softer components—the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.
3. The Climate of Sundaland
Sundaland had a tropical climate, with the equator running through central Sumatra and Borneo. Like other tropical regions, rainfall rather than temperature was the primary factor influencing climatic variation. Most of Sundaland received over 2,000 mm of annual rainfall, with precipitation exceeding evapotranspiration year-round, meaning there was virtually no dry season.
4. Flora and Fauna of Sundaland
The high rainfall in Sundaland supported dense tropical rainforests, which transitioned into deciduous forests and savannas. Primary forests in Sundaland were characterized by massive dipterocarp trees and orangutans. Dipterocarps are known for their irregular mast fruiting cycles, where trees fruit simultaneously at unpredictable intervals. Highland forests featured shorter trees, dominated by oak species.
During the Last Ice Age, when sea levels dropped, Sundaland was an extension of the Asian continent. As a result, today’s Sundaland islands are home to a vast number of Asian mammals such as elephants, monkeys, tigers, tapirs, and rhinos. The flooding of Sundaland separated species that once shared a common habitat. One example is the pectoral fish, which once thrived in the ancient river system now known as the “Northern Sunda River” or “Northern Mollengraaf River.” Today, these fish are found in the Kapuas River in Borneo and the Musi and Batanghari Rivers in Sumatra.
Natural selection pressures, sometimes leading to extinction, acted differently on each island, resulting in distinct mammalian populations on each. However, not all species that inhabited Sundaland before its flooding were widespread across the entire Sunda Shelf, meaning the current fauna consists of common Sundaland or Asian species rather than its original biodiversity. There is a positive correlation between island size and terrestrial mammal diversity, with Borneo and Sumatra—the largest Sundaland islands—being the most diverse.
5. The People of Sundaland
According to the most widely accepted theory, the ancestors of modern Austronesian populations in Maritime Southeast Asia migrated southward from East Asia through Taiwan before spreading across the region. Some theories suggest that the now-submerged Sundaland was the birthplace of the Austronesian language, but this view is not widely supported by archaeologists, linguists, or geneticists. The “Out of Taiwan” model is the most accepted explanation.
A study by the University of Leeds, published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, examined mitochondrial DNA lineages and found common ancestry between populations in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, indicating early migrations. This migration coincided with rising sea levels, possibly forcing people to migrate from the Philippine archipelago as far north as Taiwan over the past 10,000 years.
Major sea level rises may have triggered the flooding of Sundaland, forming the Java Sea and South China Sea, as well as the thousands of islands that make up modern Indonesia and the Philippines. The rising sea levels may have forced people to abandon coastal settlements and adapt to inland forests and mountainous regions, developing agriculture and becoming the ancestors of the region’s modern populations. Genetic similarities exist among Asian populations, with greater diversity from north to south. Chinese populations are large but have been less fluctuating compared to Southeast Asian minorities, due to more recent expansions within the past 2,000-3,000 years. Geneticist Stephen Oppenheimer traces Austronesian origins back to Sundaland.
6. The Civilization of Sriwijaya
Sundaland was home to many ancient cultures and civilizations. One of the most renowned was the Sriwijaya civilization, which dominated much of Southeast Asia from the 7th to 13th centuries. Rising sea levels have submerged many historical sites in Sundaland, but archaeologists continue to research and uncover the history of the lost civilizations that once thrived in this region.
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