A genetic analysis indicates that humans migrated from India to Australia around 4,000 years ago. This contradicts the prevailing view that, after its initial colonization, Australia had little contact with the rest of the world before the late eighteenth century.

Irina Pugach at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and her colleagues analysed genome-wide genetic variation from 344 people, including Australian Aboriginals and individuals from Africa, India and island Southeast Asia. The authors found evidence of a migration out of Africa into Australia at least 36,000 years ago, and one from India about 4,230 years ago.

The Australian archaeological record shows rapid changes in tool technology around 4,000 years ago, leading the authors to suggest that the migrants could have brought in the new technology.

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211927110 (2013)