ֱ̽ of Cambridge - Australia /taxonomy/subjects/australia en Study uncovers earliest evidence of humans using fire to shape the landscape of Tasmania /research/news/study-uncovers-earliest-evidence-of-humans-using-fire-to-shape-the-landscape-of-tasmania <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/emerald-swamp-copy.jpg?itok=dRRRlRu_" alt="Emerald Swamp, Tasmania" title="Emerald Swamp, Tasmania, Credit: Simon Haberle" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>A team of researchers from the UK and Australia analysed charcoal and pollen contained in ancient mud to determine how Aboriginal Tasmanians shaped their surroundings. This is the earliest record of humans using fire to shape the Tasmanian environment.</p> <p>Early human migrations from Africa to the southern part of the globe were well underway during the early part of the last ice age – humans reached northern Australia by around 65,000 years ago. When the first Palawa/Pakana (Tasmanian Indigenous) communities eventually reached Tasmania (known to the Palawa people as Lutruwita), it was the furthest south humans had ever settled.</p> <p>These early Aboriginal communities used fire to penetrate and modify dense, wet forest for their own use – as indicated by a sudden increase in charcoal accumulated in ancient mud 41,600 years ago.</p> <p> ֱ̽researchers say their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adp6579">results</a>, reported in the journal <em>Science Advances</em>, could not only help us understand how humans have been shaping the Earth’s environment for tens of thousands of years, but also help understand the long-term Aboriginal-landscape connection, which is vital for landscape management in Australia today.</p> <p>Tasmania currently lies about 240 kilometres off the southeast Australian coast, separated from the Australian mainland by the Bass Strait. However, during the last ice age, Australia and Tasmania were connected by a huge land bridge, allowing people to reach Tasmania on foot. ֱ̽land bridge remained until about 8,000 years ago, after the end of the last ice age, when rising sea levels eventually cut Tasmania off from the Australian mainland.</p> <p>“Australia is home to the world’s oldest Indigenous culture, which has endured for over 50,000 years,” said Dr Matthew Adeleye from Cambridge’s Department of Geography, the study’s lead author. “Earlier studies have shown that Aboriginal communities on the Australian mainland used fire to shape their habitats, but we haven’t had similarly detailed environmental records for Tasmania.”</p> <p> ֱ̽researchers studied ancient mud taken from islands in the Bass Strait, which is part of Tasmania today, but would have been part of the land bridge connecting Australia and Tasmania during the last ice age. Due to low sea levels at the time, Palawa/Pakana communities were able to migrate from the Australian mainland.</p> <p>Analysis of the ancient mud showed a sudden increase in charcoal around 41,600 years ago, followed by a major change in vegetation about 40,000 years ago, as indicated by different types of pollen in the mud.</p> <p>“This suggests these early inhabitants were clearing forests by burning them, in order to create open spaces for subsistence and perhaps cultural activities,” said Adeleye. “Fire is an important tool, and it would have been used to promote the type of vegetation or landscape that was important to them.”</p> <p> ֱ̽researchers say that humans likely learned to use fire to clear and manage forests during their migration across the glacial landscape of Sahul – a palaeocontinent that encompassed modern-day Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea and eastern Indonesia – as part of the extensive migration out of Africa.</p> <p>“As natural habitats adapted to these controlled burnings, we see the expansion of fire-adapted species such as Eucalyptus, primarily on the wetter, eastern side of the Bass Strait islands,” said Adeleye.</p> <p>Burning practices are still practiced today by Aboriginal communities in Australia, including for landscape management and cultural activities. However, using this type of burning, known as cultural burning, for managing severe wildfires in Australia remains contentious. ֱ̽researchers say understanding this ancient land management practice could help define and restore pre-colonial landscapes.</p> <p>“These early Tasmanian communities were the island’s first land managers,” said Adeleye. “If we’re going to protect Tasmanian and Australian landscapes for future generations, it’s important that we listen to and learn from Indigenous communities who are calling for a greater role in helping to manage Australian landscapes into the future.”</p> <p> ֱ̽research was supported in part by the Australian Research Council.</p> <p><em><strong>Reference:</strong><br /> Matthew A Adeleye et al. ‘<a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adp6579">Landscape burning facilitated Aboriginal migration into Lutruwita/Tasmania 41,600 years ago</a>.’ Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp6579</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Some of the first human beings to arrive in Tasmania, over 41,000 years ago, used fire to shape and manage the landscape, about 2,000 years earlier than previously thought.</p> </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/persons/simon-haberle" target="_blank">Simon Haberle</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Emerald Swamp, Tasmania</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License." src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/cc-by-nc-sa-4-license.png" style="border-width: 0px; width: 88px; height: 31px;" /></a><br /> ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ֱ̽ of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our <a href="/">main website</a> under its <a href="/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions">Terms and conditions</a>, and on a <a href="/about-this-site/connect-with-us">range of channels including social media</a> that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Fri, 15 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000 sc604 248551 at Buying time: can science save the Great Barrier Reef? /stories/saving-great-barrier-reef <div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>If we don’t stop global temperatures – both on land and at sea – from rising, the Great Barrier Reef could become a coral graveyard. A team of scientists has decided to do something about it.</p> </p></div></div></div> Wed, 16 Oct 2024 04:18:14 +0000 sc604 248281 at Ancient seafloor vents spewed tiny, life-giving minerals into Earth’s early oceans /research/news/ancient-seafloor-vents-spewed-tiny-life-giving-minerals-into-earths-early-oceans <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/1440px-marum-schwarzer-raucher-copy-dp.jpg?itok=u30oFKWg" alt=" ֱ̽hydrothermal vent &#039;Candelabra&#039; in the Logatchev hydrothermal field." title=" ֱ̽hydrothermal vent &amp;#039;Candelabra&amp;#039; in the Logatchev hydrothermal field on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a water depth of 3300 metres., Credit: MARUM − Zentrum für Marine Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Bremen" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Their <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj4789">study</a>, published in <em>Science Advances</em>, examined 3.5-billion-year-old rocks from western Australia in previously unseen detail and identified large quantities of a mineral called greenalite, which is thought to have played a role in early biological processes. ֱ̽researchers also found that the seafloor vents would have seeded the oceans with apatite, a mineral rich in the life-essential element phosphorus.</p> <p> ֱ̽earliest lifeforms we know of—single-celled microorganisms, or microbes—emerged around 3.7 billion years ago. Most of the rocks that contain traces of them and the environment they lived in have, however, been destroyed. Some of the only evidence we have of this pivotal time comes from an outcrop of sediments in the remote Australian outback.</p> <p> ֱ̽so-called Dresser Formation has been studied for years but, in the new study, researchers re-examined the rocks in closer detail, using high magnification electron microscopes to reveal tiny minerals that were essentially hidden in plain sight.</p> <p> ֱ̽greenalite particles they observed measured just a few hundred nanometres in size—so small that they would have been washed over thousands of kilometres, potentially finding their way into a range of environments where they may have kick-started otherwise unfavourable chemical reactions, such as those involved in building the first DNA and RNA molecules.</p> <p>“We’ve found that hydrothermal vents supplied trillions upon trillions of tiny, highly-reactive greenalite particles, as well as large quantities of phosphorus,” said Professor Birger Rasmussen, lead author of the study from the ֱ̽ of Western Australia.</p> <p>Rasmussen said scientists are still unsure as to the exact role of greenalite in building primitive cells, “but this mineral was in the right place at the right time, and also had the right size and crystal structure to promote the assembly of early cells.”</p> <p> ֱ̽rocks the researchers studied contain characteristic layers of rusty-red, iron-rich jasper which formed as mineral-laden seawater spewed from hydrothermal vents. Scientists had thought the jaspers got their distinctive red colour from particles of iron oxide which, just like rust, form when iron is exposed to oxygen.</p> <p>But how did this iron oxide form when Earth’s early oceans lacked oxygen? One theory is that photosynthesising cyanobacteria in the oceans produced the oxygen, and that it wasn’t until later, around 2.4 billion years ago, that this oxygen started to skyrocket in the atmosphere.</p> <p> ֱ̽new results change that assumption, however, “the story is completely different once you look closely enough,” said study co-author Professor Nick Tosca from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences.</p> <p> ֱ̽researchers found that tiny, drab, particles of greenalite far outnumbered the iron oxide particles which give the jaspers their colour. ֱ̽iron oxide was not an original feature, discounting the theory that they were formed by the activity of cyanobacteria.</p> <p>“Our findings show that iron wasn’t oxidised in the oceans; instead, it combined with silica to form tiny crystals of greenalite,” said Tosca. “That means major oxygen producers, cyanobacteria, may have evolved later, potentially coinciding with the soar in atmospheric oxygen during the Great Oxygenation Event.”</p> <p>Birger said that more experiments are needed to identify how greenalite might facilitate prebiotic chemistry, “but it was present in such vast quantities that, under the right conditions its surfaces could have synthesized an enormous number of RNA-type sequences, addressing a key question in origin of life research – where did all the RNA come from?” </p> <p><em><strong>Reference:</strong><br /> Rasmussen, B, Muhling, J, Tosca, N J. '<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj4789">Nanoparticulate apatite and greenalite in oldest, well-preserved hydrothermal vent precipitates</a>.' Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj4789</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Western Australia have uncovered the importance of hydrothermal vents, similar to underwater geysers, in supplying minerals that may have been a key ingredient in the emergence of early life.</p> </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent#/media/File:MARUM_Schwarzer_Raucher.jpg" target="_blank">MARUM − Zentrum für Marine Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Bremen</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> ֱ̽hydrothermal vent &#039;Candelabra&#039; in the Logatchev hydrothermal field on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a water depth of 3300 metres.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License." src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/cc-by-nc-sa-4-license.png" style="border-width: 0px; width: 88px; height: 31px;" /></a><br /> ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ֱ̽ of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our <a href="/">main website</a> under its <a href="/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions">Terms and conditions</a>, and on a <a href="/about-this-site/connect-with-us">range of channels including social media</a> that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-license-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Licence type:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/imagecredit/attribution">Attribution</a></div></div></div> Fri, 02 Feb 2024 16:38:44 +0000 cmm201 244301 at Australian Aboriginal spears taken by James Cook to be repatriated /news/australian-aboriginal-spears-taken-by-james-cook-to-be-repatriated <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/news/spears.jpg?itok=blzW3QWF" alt="" title="Credit: None" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p> ֱ̽spears were taken by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770 from Kamay (Botany Bay) at the time of the first contact between the crew of the HMB Endeavour and the Aboriginal people of eastern Australia.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Trinity College has agreed to permanently return the four spears to the La Perouse Aboriginal community. ֱ̽College is now approaching the UK’s Charity Commission to obtain approval for this transfer of legal title.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Cook recorded that 40 spears were taken from the camps of Aboriginal people living at Botany Bay in April 1770. </p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lord Sandwich of the British Admiralty presented the four spears to Trinity College soon after James Cook returned to England and they have been part of the collection since 1771. Since 1914 the four spears have been cared for by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. ֱ̽four spears are all that remain of the original 40 spears collected. </p>&#13; &#13; <p>Trinity College’s decision follows the establishment of a respectful and robust relationship over the last decade between the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Aboriginal community at La Perouse. Discussions included representatives of the local Gweagal people - the Aboriginal group from whom the spears were taken - the broader Dharawal Nation, and leading community organisations, including the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Gujaga Foundation. </p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽relationship between Cambridge and La Perouse will continue through collaborative research projects and community visits, once the spears have been returned. </p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽La Perouse community is currently lending contemporary spears made by Senior Gweagal Clan leader Rodney Mason to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to show how traditional knowledge has been passed down, while adapting to new technologies.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽decision by Trinity College to return the spears followed a formal repatriation request in December 2022, from the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Gujaga Foundation.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 2015 and again in 2020, some of the spears were returned temporarily to Australia for the first time since they were taken, and displayed by the National Museum of Australia in Canberra as part of two exhibitions exploring frontier encounters.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽spears will be permanently repatriated with the assistance of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council chairperson, Noeleen Timbery said the spears would be preserved for future generations.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“We are proud to have worked with Cambridge’s Trinity College and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to transfer the ownership of these enormously significant artefacts to the La Perouse Aboriginal community. They are an important connection to our past, our traditions and cultural practices, and to our ancestors. With assistance from the National Museum of Australia and AIATSIS we will ensure these objects are preserved for our future generations and for all Australians. </p>&#13; &#13; <p>"Our Elders have worked for many years to see their ownership transferred to the traditional owners of Botany Bay. Many of the families within the La Perouse Aboriginal community are descended from those who were present during the eight days the Endeavour was anchored in Kamay in 1770,” said Ms Timbery.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Professor Nicholas Thomas, Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, said he was honoured to have worked with the Kamay community to repatriate the spears.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“It has been immensely rewarding to work with the La Perouse community to research these artefacts and we look forward to extending the partnership into the future,” said Professor Thomas.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>" ֱ̽spears are exceptionally significant. They are the first artefacts collected by any European from any part of Australia, that remain extant and documented. They reflect the beginnings of a history of misunderstanding and conflict. Their significance will be powerfully enhanced through return to the country."</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Dame Sally Davies, Master of Trinity College, welcomed the decision to return the spears.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Trinity is committed to better understanding the College’s history, and to addressing the complex legacies of the British Empire, not least in our collections,” said Professor Davies.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“ ֱ̽College’s interaction with the La Perouse Aboriginal community, the ֱ̽ of Cambridge and National Museum Australia regarding the return of artefacts to the people from whom they were taken has been a respectful and rewarding process. </p>&#13; &#13; <p>“We believe that this is the right decision and I would like to acknowledge and thank all those involved."</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Dharawal Elder, Dr Shayne Williams said: “These spears are of immeasurable value as powerful, tangible connections between our forebears and ourselves. I want to acknowledge the respectfulness of Trinity College in returning these spears back to our community. In caring for the spears for over 252 years, Trinity College has ensured that these priceless artefacts can now be utilised for cultural education by the Aboriginal community into the future.”<br />&#13;  </p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Four Australian Aboriginal spears – cared for by Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology – are to be repatriated after Trinity College agreed to permanently return them to the country.</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">It has been immensely rewarding to work with the La Perouse community to research these artefacts and we look forward to extending the partnership into the future.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Professor Nicholas Thomas, Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br />&#13; ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ֱ̽ of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.  All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our <a href="/">main website</a> under its <a href="/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions">Terms and conditions</a>, and on a <a href="/about-this-site/connect-with-us">range of channels including social media</a> that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Thu, 02 Mar 2023 09:42:24 +0000 sb726 237381 at Black Ned Kelly? ֱ̽truth about an infamous Australian bandit /stories/book-reveals-truth-about-infamous-australian-bandit-black-douglas <div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Historian Dr Meg Foster shatters the myth that “Black Douglas” murdered a white woman and tells the story of an intelligent survivor</p> </p></div></div></div> Mon, 14 Nov 2022 08:30:00 +0000 ta385 235361 at DNA profiling solves Australian rabbit plague puzzle /stories/dna-profiling-solves-australia-rabbit-plague-puzzle <div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>A new study proves that a single introduction of rabbits shipped from England in 1859 caused the infamous invasion and argues that wild genetic traits gave these animals a devastating advantage over earlier arrivals.</p> </p></div></div></div> Mon, 22 Aug 2022 19:00:00 +0000 ta385 233841 at Unprecedented study of Aboriginal Australians points to one shared Out of Africa migration for modern humans /research/news/unprecedented-study-of-aboriginal-australians-points-to-one-shared-out-of-africa-migration-for <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/coverimageforuniwebsote.jpg?itok=PNE-BOc-" alt="Aubrey Lynch, elder from the Wongatha Aboriginal language group, who participated in the study." title="Aubrey Lynch, elder from the Wongatha Aboriginal language group, who participated in the study., Credit: Preben Hjort, Magus Film" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p> ֱ̽first major genomic study of Aboriginal Australians ever undertaken has confirmed that all present-day non-African populations are descended from the same single wave of migrants, who left Africa around 72,000 years ago.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Researchers sequenced the complete genetic information of 83 Aboriginal Australians, as well as 25 Papuans from New Guinea, to produce a host of significant new findings about the origins of modern human populations. Their <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/articles">work</a> is published alongside several other related papers in the journal Nature.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽study, by an international team of academics, was carried out in close collaboration with elders and leaders from various Aboriginal Australian communities – some of whom are co-authors on the paper – as well as with various other organisations representing the participating groups.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alongside the prevailing conclusion, that the overwhelming majority of the genomes of non-Africans alive today stem from one ancestral group of migrants who left Africa together, there are several other standout findings. These include:</p>&#13; &#13; <ul><li>Compelling evidence that Aboriginal Australians are descended directly from the first people to inhabit Australia – which is still the subject of periodic political dispute.</li>&#13; <li>Evidence of an uncharacterised – and perhaps unknown – early human species which interbred with anatomically modern humans as they migrated through Asia.</li>&#13; <li>Evidence that a mysterious dispersal from the northeastern part of Australia roughly 4,000 years ago contributed to the cultural links between Aboriginal groups today. These internal migrants defined the way in which people spoke and thought, but then disappeared from most of the continent, in a manner which the researchers describe as “ghost-like”.</li>&#13; </ul><p> ֱ̽study’s senior authors are from the ֱ̽ of Cambridge, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the Universities of Copenhagen, Bern and Griffith ֱ̽ Australia. Within Cambridge, members of the Leverhulme Centre for Evolutionary Studies also contributed to the research, in particular by helping to place the genetic data which the team gathered in the field within the context of wider evidence about early human population and migration patterns.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> </p>&#13; &#13; <center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_kbRxSzDE4k" width="560"></iframe></center>&#13; &#13; <p> </p>&#13; &#13; <p>Professor Eske Willerslev, who holds posts at St John’s College, ֱ̽ of Cambridge, the Sanger Institute and the ֱ̽ of Copenhagen, initiated and led the research. He said: “ ֱ̽study addresses a number of fundamental questions about human evolution – how many times did we leave Africa, when was Australia populated, and what is the diversity of people in and outside Australia?”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Technologically and politically, it has not really been possible to answer those questions until now. We found evidence that there was only really one wave of humans who gave rise to all present-day non-Africans, including Australians.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Anatomically modern humans are known to have left Africa approximately 72,000 years ago, eventually spreading across Asia and Europe. Outside Africa, Australia has one of the longest histories of continuous human occupation, dating back about 50,000 years.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Some researchers believe that this deep history indicates that Papuans and Australians stemmed from an earlier migration than the ancestors of Eurasian peoples; others that they split from Eurasian progenitors within Africa itself, and left the continent in a separate wave.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Until the present study, however, the only genetic evidence for Aboriginal Australians, which is needed to investigate these theories, came from one tuft of hair (taken from a long-since deceased individual), and two unidentified cell lines.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽new research dramatically improves that picture. Working closely with community elders, representative organisations and the ethical board of Griffith ֱ̽, Willerslev and colleagues obtained permission to sequence dozens of Aboriginal Australian genomes, using DNA extracted from saliva.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This was compared with existing genetic information about other populations. ֱ̽researchers modelled the likely genetic impact of different human dispersals from Africa and towards Australia, looking for patterns that best matched the data they had acquired. Dr Marta Mirazon Lahr and Professor Robert Foley, both from the Leverhulme Centre, assisted in particular by analysing the likely correspondences between this newly-acquired genetic evidence and a wider framework of existing archaeological and anthropological evidence about early human population movements.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> </p>&#13; &#13; <center><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/ew2.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 333px;" /></center>&#13; &#13; <p> </p>&#13; &#13; <p>Dr Manjinder Sandhu, a senior author from the Sanger Institute and ֱ̽ of Cambridge, said: “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.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽Papuan and Australian ancestors did, however, diverge early from the rest, around 58,000 years ago. By comparison, European and Asian ancestral groups only become distinct in the genetic record around 42,000 years ago.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽study then traces the Papuan and Australian groups’ progress. Around 50,000 years ago they reached “Sahul” – a prehistoric supercontinent that originally united New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania, until these regions were separated by rising sea levels approximately 10,000 years ago.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽researchers charted several further “divergences” in which various parts of the population broke off and became genetically isolated from others. Interestingly, Papuans and Aboriginal Australians appear to have diverged about 37,000 years ago – long before they became physically separated by water. ֱ̽cause is unclear, but one reason may be the early flooding of the Carpentaria basin, which left Australia connected to New Guinea by a strip of land that may have been unfavourable for human habitation.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Once in Australia, the ancestors of today’s Aboriginal communities remained almost completely isolated from the rest of the world’s population until just a few thousand years ago, when they came into contact with some Asian populations, followed by European travellers in the 18th Century.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Indeed, by 31,000 years ago, most Aboriginal communities were genetically isolated from each other. This divergence was most likely caused by environmental barriers; in particular the evolution of an almost impassable central desert as the Australian continent dried out.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> </p>&#13; &#13; <center><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/map_reduced_so_that_the_bloody_cms_can_cope_with_it.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 391px;" /></center>&#13; &#13; <p> </p>&#13; &#13; <p>Assistant Professor Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas, from the Universities of Copenhagen and Bern, and a lead author, said: “ ֱ̽genetic diversity among Aboriginal Australians is amazing. Because the continent has been populated for such a long time, we find that groups from south-western Australia are genetically more different from north-eastern Australia, than, for example, Native Americans are from Siberians.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Two other major findings also emerged. First, the researchers were able to reappraise traces of DNA which come from an ancient, extinct human species and are found in Aboriginal Australians. These have traditionally been attributed to encounters with Denisovans – a group known from DNA samples found in Siberia.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In fact, the new study suggests that they were from a different, as-yet uncharacterised, species. “We don’t know who these people were, but they were a distant relative of Denisovans, and the Papuan/Australian ancestors probably encountered them close to Sahul,” Willerslev said.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Finally, the research also offers an intriguing new perspective on how Aboriginal culture itself developed, raising the possibility of a mysterious, internal migration 4,000 years ago.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>About 90% of Aboriginal communities today speak languages belonging to the “Pama-Nyungan” linguistic family. ֱ̽study finds that all of these people are  descendants of the founding population which diverged from the Papuans 37,000 years ago, then diverged further into genetically isolated communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This, however, throws up a long-established paradox. Language experts are adamant that Pama-Nyungan languages are much younger, dating back 4,000 years, and coinciding with the appearance of new stone technologies in the archaeological record.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Scientists have long puzzled over how – if these communities were completely isolated from each other and the rest of the world – they ended up sharing a language family that is much younger? ֱ̽traditional answer has been that there was a second migration into Australia 4,000 years ago, by people speaking this language.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>But the new research finds no evidence of this. Instead, the team uncovered signs of a tiny gene flow, indicating a small population movement from north-east Australia across the continent, potentially at the time the Pama-Nyungan language and new stone tool technologies appeared.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>These intrepid travellers, who must have braved forbidding environmental barriers, were small in number, but had a significant, sweeping impact on the continent’s culture. Mysteriously, however, the genetic evidence for them then disappears. In short, their influential language and culture survived – but they, as a distinctive group, did not.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“It’s a really weird scenario,” Willerslev said. “A few immigrants appear in different villages and communities around Australia. They change the way people speak and think; then they disappear, like ghosts. And people just carry on living in isolation the same way they always have. This may have happened for religious or cultural reasons that we can only speculate about. But in genetic terms, we have never seen anything like it before.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽paper, <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/articles">A Genomic History of Aboriginal Australia</a>, is published in Nature. doi:10.1038/nature18299.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Inset images: Professor Eske Willerslev talking to Aboriginal elders in the Kalgoorlie area in southwestern Australia in 2012. (Photo credit: Preben Hjort, Mayday Film). / Map showing main findings from the paper. Credit: St John's College, Cambridge.</em></p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p> ֱ̽first significant investigation into the genomics of Aboriginal Australians has uncovered several major findings about early human populations. These include evidence of a single “Out of Africa” migration event, and of a previously unidentified, “ghost-like” population spread which provided a basis for the modern Aboriginal cultural landscape.</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">We found evidence that there was only really one wave of humans who gave rise to all present-day non-Africans, including Australians</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Eske Willerslev</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank">Preben Hjort, Magus Film</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Aubrey Lynch, elder from the Wongatha Aboriginal language group, who participated in the study.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br />&#13; ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. For image use please see separate credits above.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Wed, 21 Sep 2016 18:00:19 +0000 tdk25 178832 at Modern art’s missing chapter /research/news/modern-arts-missing-chapter <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/pootoogook-joyfully-2013.jpg?itok=T1G9mbTA" alt="Joyfully I Saw Ten Caribou" title="Joyfully I Saw Ten Caribou, Credit: Joseph Pootoogook" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>After being awarded £100,000 by the Art Fund to build a collection of work from Australia, South Africa and Canada, the museum officially opened <em> ֱ̽Power of Paper</em> yesterday. ֱ̽exhibition focuses on artworks made in those countries during an epoch of decolonisation.</p> <p>It exhibits for the first time in the UK some of the earliest prints made by Aboriginal, Inuit and black South African artists – a rich variety of indigenous art from the 1950s onwards as the end of empire informed works reflecting attachments to land and belief, as well as struggles with violence, dislocation and contemporary city life.</p> <p>"This show is a revelation," said Nicholas Thomas, Director of MAA and the exhibition's curator. "It presents visions of place and history that are rarely given the attention their eloquence and power deserve, even in today's supposedly global and inclusive art world.</p> <p>“I'm taken aback by the sheer artistic accomplishment of all the works included, but also love the quirkiness of the artists' take on everything from empire, to township life, to climate change. Why should a military helicopter be hoisting an oversized caribou, walrus and polar bear through the air? You need to come to the show to find out."</p> <p>Modern art was more than just a project of great Europeans. From the late 1950s onward, as the end of empire gathered momentum, artists in native and local communities began to produce work in modern media in both remote community workshops and city studios; wryly expressing everyday life in townships or settlements, and often illuminating both personal and collective concerns in artworks that could be evocative, oblique or polemical.</p> <p>Responding to the very limited representation of modern indigenous art movements in British collections, in 2011 the Art Fund awarded the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge £100,000 to build a collection of work on paper from Australia, Canada and South Africa.</p> <p></p> <p>For more than two years, working with a network of artists, workshops and specialist curators, Thomas embarked on what he described as a ‘dream shopping trip’, building a unique collection of around 300 works. While some of the artists are internationally famous, only a few of the works have been on display in Europe.</p> <p>Art on display in Britain for the first time includes the very first prints produced at the famous Rorke’s Drift print workshop, which played a major role in the development of black art during apartheid.</p> <p>South African artist Frank Ledimo, whose work King Ubu Encounter (2002) is featured in the exhibition, said: “I create work that is based on the urban landscape in which I live. I have been fascinated by the representation of the figure to relay messages of urban squalor, city life, survivors and victims of urbanisation.”</p> <p>Added Thomas: “<em> ֱ̽Power of Paper</em> gives voice to great but marginalized artists, whose words caption their own work. ֱ̽exhibition's most vital message is that art has offered a route to freedom.”</p> <p><em> ֱ̽Power of Paper</em> runs at MAA until December 6, 2015. ֱ̽exhibition will also feature a working press with opportunities to participate in practical workshops as visitors explore the medium of printmaking as a form of expression.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p> ֱ̽artworks of black and indigenous peoples – a missing chapter in the history of modern art – is brought into sharp focus in a ‘revelatory’ exhibition at Cambridge ֱ̽’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.</p> </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> ֱ̽exhibition&#039;s most vital message is that art has offered a route to freedom</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Nicholas Thomas</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank">Joseph Pootoogook</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Joyfully I Saw Ten Caribou</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-slideshow field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/sites/default/files/ashoona_arctic_evening.jpg" title="Arctic Evening, Shuviani Ashoona" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="" data-cbox-img-attrs="{&quot;title&quot;: &quot;Arctic Evening, Shuviani Ashoona&quot;, &quot;alt&quot;: &quot;&quot;}"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow/public/ashoona_arctic_evening.jpg?itok=E8P_vcR0" width="590" height="288" alt="" title="Arctic Evening, Shuviani Ashoona" /></a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/sites/default/files/ashoona_world_view_2012.jpg" title="World View, Shuviani Ashoona" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="" data-cbox-img-attrs="{&quot;title&quot;: &quot;World View, Shuviani Ashoona&quot;, &quot;alt&quot;: &quot;&quot;}"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow/public/ashoona_world_view_2012.jpg?itok=HapPSbiN" width="590" height="288" alt="" title="World View, Shuviani Ashoona" /></a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/sites/default/files/nhlengethwa_precisely_my_point_2013.jpg" title="Precisely My Point, Sam Nhlengethwa" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="" data-cbox-img-attrs="{&quot;title&quot;: &quot;Precisely My Point, Sam Nhlengethwa&quot;, &quot;alt&quot;: &quot;&quot;}"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow/public/nhlengethwa_precisely_my_point_2013.jpg?itok=Cz_gtlA4" width="590" height="288" alt="" title="Precisely My Point, Sam Nhlengethwa" /></a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/sites/default/files/pootoogook_joyfully_2013.jpg" title="Joyfully I Saw Ten Caribou, Joseph Pootoogook" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="" data-cbox-img-attrs="{&quot;title&quot;: &quot;Joyfully I Saw Ten Caribou, Joseph Pootoogook&quot;, &quot;alt&quot;: &quot;&quot;}"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow/public/pootoogook_joyfully_2013.jpg?itok=kikDdPkW" width="590" height="288" alt="" title="Joyfully I Saw Ten Caribou, Joseph Pootoogook" /></a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/sites/default/files/pudlatimposedmigration.jpg" title="Imposed Migration, Pudlo Pudlat" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="" data-cbox-img-attrs="{&quot;title&quot;: &quot;Imposed Migration, Pudlo Pudlat&quot;, &quot;alt&quot;: &quot;&quot;}"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow/public/pudlatimposedmigration.jpg?itok=F5Fy2S9_" width="590" height="288" alt="" title="Imposed Migration, Pudlo Pudlat" /></a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/sites/default/files/watson.jpg" title="strung up strung out, Judy Watson" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="" data-cbox-img-attrs="{&quot;title&quot;: &quot;strung up strung out, Judy Watson&quot;, &quot;alt&quot;: &quot;&quot;}"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow/public/watson.jpg?itok=1Kpgfb8H" width="590" height="288" alt="" title="strung up strung out, Judy Watson" /></a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/sites/default/files/nhlengethwa_so_then_who_did_it_2013.jpg" title="Precisely My Point, Sam Nhlengethwa" class="colorbox" data-colorbox-gallery="" data-cbox-img-attrs="{&quot;title&quot;: &quot;Precisely My Point, Sam Nhlengethwa&quot;, &quot;alt&quot;: &quot;&quot;}"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow/public/nhlengethwa_so_then_who_did_it_2013.jpg?itok=LkfS4AIf" width="590" height="288" alt="" title="Precisely My Point, Sam Nhlengethwa" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p> ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page. For image rights, please see the credits associated with each individual image.</p> <p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/80x15.png" style="width: 80px; height: 15px;" /></a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Wed, 25 Feb 2015 01:01:34 +0000 sjr81 146422 at