Latest news with #BismarckArchipelago
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Study of early Pacific migrants could help with health history, says researcher
A 2009 excavation involving researchers from the University of Otago, at the SAC locality on Watom Island, Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. Photo: Dr Rebecca Kinaston International researchers have recovered the first ancient genomes from Papua New Guinea, which holds clues into the lives of early Pacific settlers. The research into Pacific migration has been 20 years in the making but current technology has led to new breakthroughs. Otago University's Dr Monica Tromp said they are able now to get really fragmented, ancient DNA from hot and humid environments like Papua New Guinea. She told Pacific Waves there was little interaction between the groups of people that first settled in PNG about 50,000 years ago. "There seems to be very distinct groups of people, as far back as we can see with these samples, that were not interacting with each other... at least not interacting with each other in a way we can see through genetics," she said. "So people weren't intermarrying with each other. They were sticking to their to their different groups." Photo: Supplied Tromp said there are a couple of places in the paper that are later in time, on PNG's south coast. She said these two groups lived very close together at the same time, but even then, 500-600 years ago, people kept separate from each other. "They have different burial traditions; they're eating differently; they looked different genetically, so they were still maintaining their distinct populations. "We can see it reflected today in languages, because there's hundreds of different languages spoken just in Papua New Guinea." She said the study of early Pacific migrants could help Pacific communities understand their health history. "Besides just being interesting, being able to look at DNA from this far back - although it hasn't been done yet - we can try to find out other things, like where different kind of health issues may have come from... to help target treatments for people that have this kind of ancestry," she said. "That's been done a lot in Europe and other places where they have these big data sets, but there's not a lot that has been done down in the Pacific. "Hopefully, if more things like this can happen, it can not only help people learn more about their ancestors, but also hopefully learn about how that information can help them today."
NHK
26-05-2025
- General
- NHK
Remains of Japanese war dead laid to rest at national cemetery
The remains of Japanese nationals who mostly died overseas during World War Two have been laid to rest at a cemetery in central Tokyo. A memorial for the 368 unidentified people was held at Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery on Monday. More than 600 people took part, including Crown Prince and Princess Akishino and representatives of the bereaved families. Welfare Minister Fukuoka Takamaro said the government will not forget that many war dead have still been left behind, and will do all it can to bring home as many of them as possible. The remains of the 368 war dead that were newly laid to rest were recovered from the Bismarck Archipelago in the South Pacific and other areas. This brings the total number of war dead interred at the cemetery to more than 371,000. As Japan marks 80 years since the end of World War Two this year, the government says it will speed up efforts to collect the remains of the war dead. The bodies of about 1.12 million Japanese are still unrecovered in former battlefields, both in and outside Japan. An 83-year-old woman lost her father, who served in the Imperial Japanese Navy. She said she cannot bear to think that he still lies on the ocean floor off Japan's Pacific Coast and wants to embrace his remains if at all possible. The woman said she hopes the government will proceed with its efforts to return as many war dead as possible to their families.
