Blood

There was further topic raised on the Australian Broadcasting Corp radio
program the 'Science Show'.

The person directing the work on the blood samples was Dr Thorn, Prof of
Pre-history at Australian National University, Canberra.

The DNA work was carried out by the CSIRO Devision of Plant Industry.
The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation)
is a research group that is part of the Australian government, and this
group is primarily working on plant DNA.

Dr Thorn was saying that some of the aborigines, now that they have
control over the remains of their ancestors (and other artifacts), have
expressed some interest in working with the scientists. The aborigines
are interested in demonstrating their connection with the land.

Dr Allen, Prof of Archaeology at Latrobe University, Victoria was also
interviewed. He talked some work that was being done in Tasmania. He
said that may sites in Australia, PNG and the Pacific Islands had
evidence of occupation in the order of 30,000 years ago using radio
carbon dating methods. There is evidence of a wide distribution of
sophisticated hunter-gathers using stone and bone tools.  In Tasmania,
there is not much evidence of people at about 400 metres above the last
ice age sea level, but up to 100 metres there is evidence of many
people.  In the Pacific Islands of New Ireland, carbon dating gives
dates of slightly more than 30,000 years. There is evidence of the
people moving animals around at about 20,000 years ago.  He and others
are now looking at using Electro- Thermoluminesence to test for earlier
dates. One group working with samples from sites in the Australian
Northern Territory and using this technique have obtained dates in
excess of 50,000 years.

On the TV news, over the last couple of months, there have been some
items about a group of aborigines in Tasmania have successfully
pressured universities in the UK to return the remains of some of their
ancestors.

= Ian Cowell                         AARNet/ACSnet: ianc [at] toshiba__tic__oz__au =
= Toshiba International Corporation Pty Ltd Phone:  61-2-428-2077          =
= Sydney,  Australia                        Fax:    61-2-427-7405          =
==Australian Company Number 001 555 068=====================================


>From PAVELKA [at] UTXVM__CC__UTEXAS__EDU Mon Jul 29 11:53:59 1991

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 5:12
                  Distributed: Tuesday, July 30, 1991
                        Message Id: cdl-5-12-001
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