January 20, 2013

Indian human & dog genes in Australia 4,000 years ago?


Was there India-Australia contact 4,000 years before this meeting?
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Australian scholarly website The Conversation, January 15, published the following article
http://theconversation.edu.au/study-links-ancient-indian-visitors-to-australias-first-dingoes-11593 which states in part:

"Study links ancient Indian visitors to Australia’s first dingoes

A new study of DNA has found that Indian people may have come to Australia around 4000 years ago, an event possibly linked to the first appearance of the dingo [dog].

... "“We also detect a signal indicative of substantial gene flow between the Indian [human] populations and Australia well before European contact, contrary to the prevailing view that there was no contact between Australia and the rest of the world

...This is also approximately when changes in tool technology, food processing, and the dingo appear in the Australian archaeological record, suggesting that these may be related to the migration from India.”"

...Although dingo mtDNA appears to have a Southeast Asian origin, morphologically, the dingo most closely resembles Indian dogs,” the researchers said.

 it was not clear how many people came from India to Australia.

“It does not necessarily indicate direct contact with mainland India. For example it could be via populations elsewhere whose original source was mainland India,” said Professor Cooper, who was not involved in the research.

People were capable of sea travel and exploration for many hundreds of thousands of years and thus should have come to Australia many times during the last 50,000 years or so.”"
 WHOLE ARTICLE
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Pete

2 comments:

PointSingularity86 said...

Yes... The Economist also carried this article:
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21569688-genetic-evidence-suggests-four-millennia-ago-group-adventurous-indians?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/pe/anantipodeanraj

Remarkable feat considering the era!!

Pete said...

Thanks PointSingularity86

and welcome back.

The Economist ref: Dravidian speakers from the southern part of the subcontinent travelling by ship to Australia, seems quite possible.

Certainly there would have been many visits from various peoples to Austraila over the last 40,000 years.

Pete