The Oldest Humans, Aboriginal Australians

A genetic and cultural analysis, published in Nature, of 83 Aboriginal Australians and 25 Papuans from New Guinea suggests there was just one wave of humans out of Africa, 72,000 years ago. These these early migrants gave rise to all contemporary non-Africans, including indigenous Australians and Papuans. This group descended directly from the first people to inhabit the continent some 50,000 years ago. That makes them world’s longest running civilization.

Lockhart River dance troupe at the Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival. Laura, Queensland, Australia. COPYRIGHT:© Andrew Watson
Lockhart River dance troupe at the Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival. Laura, Queensland, Australia. COPYRIGHT:© Andrew Watson
Manjinder Sandhu, a senior author from the Sanger Institute and University of Cambridge, stated,

“Our results suggest that, rather than having left in a separate wave, most of the genomes of Papuans and Aboriginal Australians can be traced back to a single ‘Out of Africa’ event which led to modern worldwide populations. There may have been other migrations, but the evidence so far points to one exit event.”

The ancestoral split from this pioneering group around 58,000 years ago as these prehistoric Australians and Papuans continued to make their eastward journey. “Sahul”—a prehistoric supercontinent that connected Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania was occupied around 8,000 years later, and the rising sea levels isolated them off from the rest of the world about 10,000 years ago. They’ve been there ever since.

There are several other intriguing findings of this study. For starters, the authors uncovered genetic evidence that points to the existence of an unknown human species, possibly Denisovans, that interbred with anatomically modern humans as they migrated through Africa. The researchers also presented new perspectives on how Aboriginal culture itself developed. An internal migration happened some 4,000 years ago, explaining the presence of younger languages and the emergence of new stone technologies in the archaeological record.

4 thoughts on “The Oldest Humans, Aboriginal Australians

  1. Hi, I have found stone tools in New South Wales Australia which do not look like Aboriginal stone tools. Also, I have found the habitat of these unknown people. I have told many people about the above and the last being the National Geographic. They have all ignored me and if people want to know the truth, then you have research all claims to see if it is fact or not. So as, to know how the people of this world have advanced to the present day. Kind Regards Laurie.

  2. Very interesting, very. I find it fascinating. I live on a ‘Story Hill’ and some very strange things have happened to me here. Read my true, short story; White feather Black feather… and other insights and stories.

  3. “The Oldest Humans, Aboriginal Australians”

    This is rubbish on so many levels. Mostly it’s not what the data say or what the researchers say about the data.

    All humans currently alive are equally old. All living things currently alive are equally old. The earliest evidence for populations of humans is found in Africa – 50,000 years in Australia does not beat 200,000 years of anatomically modern humans in Africa. Because, as is very widely known and understood, some of the AMHs stayed in Africa.

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