Skip to main content

Aboriginal Australians Inhabited the Western Desert 43,000 Years Ago

In the 20th century it was accepted that Australian Aboriginals had first arrived more than 50,000 years ago. Then science brought this forward to perhaps 40,000 years from the present. New research puts the date to at least 43,000 years in the desert.

Aboriginal hafted stone tool

A rock shelter in the Australian Western Desert had human habitation until the end of the most recent Ice Age. Researchers now agree that occupation of Australia goes back over 60,000 years. A hafted multifunctional tool found at the desert site shows the tech was used 15,000 years earlier than believed.

Aboriginal culture did advance technologically as they spread right across the continent probably within 10,000 years of their arrival. Rock art was developed in recent times, but it was a culmination of evolving adaptation.
◆  ANTHROPOLOGY  

Popular posts from this blog

Natural History Museum Human Evolution Gallery

 The Human Evolution gallery at Natural History explores the origins of Homo sapiens by tracing our lineage back to when it separated from that of our closest living relatives, the bonobos and chimpanzees. Around 200,000 years ago, Africa was where modern humans developed. They have smaller faces and brow ridges, a chin that is more prominent than that of other ancient humans, and a brain case that is higher and more rounded. Modern human fossils from Israel (around 100,000 years old), Africa (around 195,000 years old), and Australia (around 12,000 years old) are among the casts on display. These fossils demonstrate that typical characteristics of modern humans evolved over time rather than emerging fully formed from Africa. They also suggest that at least two waves of people leaving Africa may have occurred, one about 100,000 years ago and the other about 60,000 years ago. We are all descendants of those who left during that second migration wave outside of Africa. Source: Natural...
  Home-made saucer that flies down the road.

Study of Tooth Enamel Indicates Neanderthal Diet Was Carnivorous

 A new study on Neanderthal dietary practices has just been published in the journal PNAS by researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and several German scientific institutions. They were able to determine that a Neanderthal who lived in a cave on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Paleolithic period (50,000 years ago) ate exclusively carnivorous food using a newly developed method for studying the chemical signatures of ancient tooth enamel. This isn't the first study to find this, either. Despite this, it is a one-of-a-kind and significant discovery because it was made through the development of a novel analytical method that could be used to learn more about the diet and way of life of Neanderthals who lived in other parts of Eurasia in the distant past.   To investigate the diet and eating habits of Neanderthals, numerous research projects have been initiated. However, they have resulted in contradictory outcomes. The CNRS researchers...