Claims that Indigenous Australians are the most ancient continuous civilisation on Earth have been backed by the first extensive study of their DNA, which dates their origins to more than 50,000 years ago.

Scientists were able to trace the remarkable journey made by intrepid ancient humans by sifting through clues left in the DNA of modern populations in Australia and Papua New Guinea. The analysis shows that their ancestors were probably the first humans to cross an ocean, and reveals evidence of prehistoric liaisons with an unknown hominin cousin.

Prof Eske Willerslev, an evolutionary geneticist who led the work at the University of Copenhagen, said: "This story has been missing for a long time in science. Now we know their relatives are the guys who were the first real human explorers. Our ancestors were sitting being kind of scared of the world while they set out on this exceptional journey across Asia and across the sea."

The findings appear in one of four major human origins papers published in Nature this week, which together give an unprecedented insight into how humans first migrated out of the African continent, splintered into distinct populations and spread across the globe.

Willerslev's findings, based on a new population analysis of 83 Indigenous Australians and 25 Papuans, shows that these groups can trace their origins back to the very first arrivals on the continent about 50,000 years ago and that they remained almost entirely isolated until around 4,000 years ago. "They are probably the oldest group in the world that you can link to one particular place," said Willerslev.

En route to Australia, early humans would have encountered a motley assortment of other roving hominin species, including an unknown human relative who has now been shown to have contributed around 4% to the Indigenous Australian genome. Previously, scientists have discovered that prehistoric couplings have left all non-Africans today carrying 1-6% of Neanderthal DNA.

Archaeologists believe they have found a lost Anglo-Saxon royal palace near one of Britain's best known finds.

Archaeologists have been studying an area at Rendlesham, about four miles (6km) from the Sutton Hoo burial site.

The study of world power has been blighted by Eurocentric historians who have distorted and ignored the dominant role China played in the world economy between 1100 and 1800. John Hobson's^[1] brilliant historical survey of the world economy during this period provides an abundance of empirical data making the case for China 's economic and technological superiority over Western civilization for the better part of a millennium prior to its conquest and decline in the 19th century.
China 's re-emergence as a world economic power raises important questions about what we can learn from its previous rise and fall and about the external and internal threats confronting this emerging economic superpower for the immediate future.

First we will outline the main contours of historical China 's rise to global economic superiority over West before the 19th century, following closely John Hobson's account in The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization. Since the majority of western economic historians (liberal, conservative and Marxist) have presented historical China as a stagnant, backward, parochial society, an "oriental despotism", some detailed correctives will be necessary. It is especially important to emphasize how China, the world technological power between 1100 and 1800, made the West's emergence possible. It was only by borrowing and assimilating Chinese innovations that the West was able to make the transition to modern capitalist and imperialist economies.

The mysterious origins of the British archaeological site most often associated with the legend of King Arthur have just become even more mysterious.

Archaeologists have discovered the impressive remains of a probable Dark Age royal palace at Tintagel in Cornwall. It is likely that the one-metre thick walls being unearthed are those of the main residence of the 6th century rulers of an ancient south-west British kingdom, known as Dumnonia.

Dedicated to my friend and Comrade Marland X @CharlieMBrownX

In my last article I dealt with the life of Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton. I also discussed the origins of the Black Panther Party (BPP). Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the BPP in Oakland, California, to battle poverty, racism, and police brutality. The BPP was created to police the police and was the first step towards a revolution. They hoped their example would inspire others and after recruiting only a single person, Lil Bobby Hutton, they began their patrols armed with guns and a law book. The tactic worked and the party slowly began to expand. In nearby Richmond, California, the BPP began to win mass support by fighting on behalf of the family of Denzil Dowell, who had been murdered by the police. They introduced a 10-point platform calling for socialism and self-determination for the Black Community. When the California Legislature decided to change the gun laws to make it illegal for the Panthers to conduct armed patrols, Bobby Seale led an armed protest that was dubbed by the media as an "invasion." Bobby and about 20 other Panthers were arrested on trumped-up charges on their way home but were soon released on bail. Then on October 28, 1967, Huey and Gene McKinney were pulled over and got in a shoot-out with police after they tried to kill Huey Newton. Newton was wounded and one cop, John Frey, a notorious fascist, was killed and his partner was wounded. Huey was put on trial for his life but the case also catapulted the party to national attention. Soon Black Panther Party branches had formed all over the country. The back-to-back assassinations of Martin Luther King, April 4, 1968, and of Lil Bobby Hutton on April 6, 1968, led to an even more massive expansion of the party.

Archaeologists have stumbled upon what they believe are the ruins of an ancient pyramid in Kazakhstan which would considerably pre-date some of Egypt's iconic pyramids.

Local archaeologists found the ruins in the Sary-Arka region near the city of Karaganda and believe that it was built for an important figure.

The team excavating the area say that the pyramid is likely more than 3,000-years old.

Viktor Novozhenov, from Karaganda State University, told Yahoo News: "Judging by the monumental construction, this mausoleum was built more than 3,000 years ago for a local king.

A team of archaeologists is about to resume work at the Bronze Age stone circles known as The Hurlers on Bodmin Moor. The excavation, part of the Heritage Lottery Fund-supported Reading the Hurlers project, aims to learn more about a site that was identified by geo-physics in the early 1990s.

Starting on Tuesday and working until September 18, members of the Cornwall Archaeological Unit will be working alongside geologists and volunteers to shed light on the potential for a "fourth" circle at the 4,000-year-old site near Liskeard.

We're all familiar with the horror stories of the Holocaust, Auschwitz and the torturous scenarios playing out behind the barbed wire fences of the many other death camps across Germany in the War. But have you heard of the equally horrific Unit 731?

Unit 731 was the equivalent to Auschwitz, not by death tolls, but by the methods of torture employed on the civilian and military prisoners held captive. Not only the torture, but the underlying nature of why the Japanese employed such brutality at the time, is also shocking.

Shiro Ishii - who was never charged with any war crimes - was the commander of the Imperial Japanese Army's Unit 731. This closely guarded secret wasn't widely acknowledged until the mid-1980s, when the extent of the human experiments began to surface.

One thing's for sure - Dr Aryeh Shimron's claims are going to be pretty controversial. He's a geologist and he apparently has proof that Jesus Christ is buried at a site in East Jerusalem.

The area is called Talpiot Tomb and it was first found in 1980. But now Aryeh has done some tests, which he says prove Jesus of Nazareth, his wife Mary Magdalene and son Judah were laid to rest there.

There are nine burial boxes in the tomb, and they all have names with links to the New Testament of the Bible on them.

Archaeologists have found the world's oldest fish hooks in a cave on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The pair, dating from about 23,000 years ago, were carved from sea snail shells and found with other ancient relics, according to a newly-published paper.

It is thought humans inhabited the island from at least 30,000 years ago, surviving despite scarce resources.

The findings suggest a wider use of advanced maritime technology in that era than previously thought.

Modern humans first moved to offshore islands some 50,000 years ago.

While fishing has been essential for early humans to spread around the planet, it is unclear how the technology evolved, with evidence limited to sites in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

"The new evidence demonstrates a geographically wider distribution of early maritime technology that extended north to the mid-latitude areas along the western Pacific coast," according to the National Academy of Sciences.

The fish hooks predate ones found in Timor, thought to be at least 16,000 years old, and Papua New Guinea, from at least 18,000 years ago.

Also found in the cave were two partially carved fish hooks, tools, beads and food debris.

The paper's authors even suggest that those who visited the cave did so seasonally, when certain species of crab were at their "most delicious".

Source: BBC