When did the first Aboriginal people arrive in Australia?

Scientific evidence has just been published on August 7, 2018 on the Australian National Academy of Sciences website, concluding that the first Australian Aboriginal people came to live on the continent here. nearly 50,000 years.

They have been attached for a long time to this land

Previously, scientists had genetically analyzed the Aboriginal hair samples and affirmed the extremely long and deep relationship between the Aboriginal groups and their country. Hair samples were collected from human migration throughout Australia from the 20s to the 1960s.

Genetic analysis of human species shows that Aboriginal people started living in Australia about 50,000 years ago . They quickly migrated at the same time across the western and eastern coastal areas and then congregated in the Nullarbor region, which is about the western part of modern-day Adelaide.

The results of the above genetic analysis also coincide with archaeological evidence.

Aboriginal people started living in Australia about 50,000 years ago.

Reaching out of Africa

Just a few thousand years before Aboriginal people set foot on Australia, a small part of African residents also left their homeland. During the migration process, they meet and cross-breed with Neanderthals before quickly multiplying and traveling to all parts of the Earth.

They became the ancestors of modern humans living on continents other than Africa, who were characterized in part by bringing 2.5% of Neanderthal DNA in their entire genome.

Scientists have found these characteristics in Australian aborigines . This shows that these Aboriginal people are part of the African race that has been dispersed, and migrated to Australia almost immediately after they left Africa.

How to reach Australia from 50,000 years ago?

The climax of exodus from Africa to Australia is a series of dangerous transits across the islands in Southeast Asia.

Recent studies suggest that the last voyage is likely to go from Timor's Roti Island to the Kimberly North Sea, and require extremely good travel planning skills, because this is the trip. It takes 4 to 7 days to ride the rafts, the array of people totaling from over 100 to 400 people.

It is very likely that earlier migration of people leaving Africa had occurred before 50,000 years ago. However, recent studies have not found any fossil evidence convincing for this hypothesis.

There is only one evidence of a place in the past in northern Australia, in the Madjedbebe region, with stone artifacts in Arnhem Land and it is thought that humans have been here more than 65,000 years ago.

This 65,000 year number was quickly accepted and considered the time when Australia began to be dominated. The media, then the Australian Prime Minister's political statements and comments also said the same.

However, there is a complete basis to suspect this 65,000 years, because it contrasts with the archaeological evidence of the sudden migration of waves across Australia very quickly after the 50,000 years ago.

Archaeological work has been conducted in Barrow Island and Carpenters Gap in Kimberly, Devils Lair south of Perth, Willandra Lakes in New South Wales and Warratyi stone hut in the Flinders Ranges.

The archaeological record of the 50,000-year-old migration completely coincides with the genetic evidence of Aboriginal breeds and is even more precise when compared to the extinction of the Australian population of about 42,000 years ago. .

Limit the period of human migration

One of the most interesting ways for us to determine when modern people dispersed throughout the world, even to Australia, was through the first breeding of Neanderthals when leaving Africa.

About a decade ago, an elephant hunter took ivory to find the bones of the ancient people on the banks of a river in Siberia. Determining the age of radioactive carbon shows that the age of the bones is 43,000 - 45,000 years, the entire genome of this person - named Ust'-Ishim after the name of the place where the bones were found - has been set. ranked by the latest technology of ancient DNA identification.

The sequencing of Ust'-Ishim's genome shows that these bones contain exactly 2.5% of the Neanderthal DNA signature of non-African humans. However, these DNA are still forming large, un-dispersed masses into small pieces across the entire genome as in our recent ancestors as well as in ourselves today.

In fact, the size of the blocks suggests that people who lived 43,000 - 45,000 years ago like Ust'-Ishim could only last as long as 230 - 430 generations after beginning contact with Neanderthals, It is impossible for ancient Africans to leave their homeland, sooner than 50,000 - 55,000 years ago.

50,000 years or even 65,000 years earlier?

Although there is clear evidence that the ancestors of modern humanity only started moving around the world about 50,000 to 55,000 years ago, it should also be considered whether human activity in Madjedbebe is real. whether it happened more than 65,000 years ago or not.

One of the main limitations of Madjedbebe research is that stone artifacts are not dated, but only the surrounding sand layers are dated.

Thus, over time, even the slightest downward movement of the stones takes place in unstable sand layers in Madjedbebe, making them look very old.

In a recent study, scientists have identified a wide range of common elements around the area, such as rats and heavy rains, which may cause these stones to sink.

Meanwhile, many archaeological traces show that the operation in Madjedbebe actually happened long after 65,000.

The connection with this country

No matter what time it is, how long the Aboriginal people leave their homeland, Australian Aboriginal people have spent that time in the continent. By that time their attachment to this place, their history, their understanding and their species contributed to shaping this country.

It is the gulf that separates one side from Europe's continual migration history and the dispersal of humankind across the five continents with one side being the deep connection of the Aboriginal people with this special land. of the world, has led to misconceptions about why maintaining a traditional lifestyle is not simply 'a lifestyle choice' but a fundamental part of their identity.