According to the analysis of whole genomes, about 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, Australian Aboriginal people and Eurasians, as a single group, left Africa and spread out around the world.
The analysis of whole genomes is regarded as the gold standard for population studies. So when geneticists from the University of Copenhagen set about comparing Aboriginal genomes to the genomes of other groups, they found that Aboriginal people diverged from Eurasians sometime between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago. This was after the main group already split from Africans. That means that Aboriginal people and all other non-African people descend from the group who left Africa at the same time.
It is evident that Aboriginal Australians are the oldest continuous culture on Earth. According To Darren Curnoe from the University of New South Wales, the DNA analysis of 83 Australian Aboriginal people shows that the Aboriginal group came to Australia only once before Europeans landed.
China, however, has the longest continuous culture with a written history, in the world,i.e. 3,500 years of written history.
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| Australian aboriginal family in canoe - circa 1920. Photos taken by Australian Missionary Anthropologists |
It should also be mentioned that the ancient origin of Aboriginal Australians is also supported by the human fossil and archaeological records.
However, research from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology claims that around 4,000 years ago, a group from South India arrived on Australia's shores and they were absorbed into the Aboriginal culture. The evidence being that a pattern of SNPs only found in Indian Y chromosomes matched with the Y chromosomes of the Aboriginal men.
Just to confuse the issue, DNA testing has often been dismissed on technical grounds in Australia, due to the deficit of Indigenous autosomal samples that are found in public and private databases. Autosomal DNA contains both maternal and paternal genetic information. Whereas Y-DNA traces the male-line (patrilineal) and mtDNA traces the mother's line (matrilineal).
But it is evident that whatever the specifics of the situation, we do know that Australian Aboriginal people have lived on this land a very long time.
However, research from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology claims that around 4,000 years ago, a group from South India arrived on Australia's shores and they were absorbed into the Aboriginal culture. The evidence being that a pattern of SNPs only found in Indian Y chromosomes matched with the Y chromosomes of the Aboriginal men.
Just to confuse the issue, DNA testing has often been dismissed on technical grounds in Australia, due to the deficit of Indigenous autosomal samples that are found in public and private databases. Autosomal DNA contains both maternal and paternal genetic information. Whereas Y-DNA traces the male-line (patrilineal) and mtDNA traces the mother's line (matrilineal).
But it is evident that whatever the specifics of the situation, we do know that Australian Aboriginal people have lived on this land a very long time.
