DNA Nation Goes to Oman

It's been billed as an epic journey of discovery and it began last week, when actor Ernie Dingo, Olympian Ian Thorpe and TV presenter Julia Zemiro travelled to Tanzania, widely regarded as the cradle of humankind. Using breakthrough genetic technology, these three familiar faces were able to trace their ancestors back 200,000 years to this part of Africa.

On Sunday night on DNA Nation, SBS TV's groundbreaking three-part series, the group traveled to the Middle East. In Oman, they met Dr Jeffrey Rose, a prehistoric archaeologist who works specialises in the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods of the Arabian Peninsula.

In the 1990s, scientists using mitochondrial signatures first hypothesised humans left Africa and travelled across Ethiopia to Yemen and Oman, following the coastline. Dr Rose's team found Palaeolithic sites scattered across the Middle East, but none of it showed any connection to Africa. That was until they returned to Oman in 2010 and discovered stone tools that were used by nomadic hunters from Africa's Nile Valley. Using technology that can accurately date these sorts of discoveries, Dr Rose found the tools to be 106,000 years old, which means the human race began to leave Africa much sooner than originally thought. Or, perhaps, as Dr Rose theorises, “the great modern human expansion to the rest of the world was launched from Arabia rather than Africa.”

Who in the team can trace their roots back to the Arabian Peninsula? You'll have to catch up on Sunday nights program to find out.

DNA Nation screens for the one more Sunday nights on 5 June at 8.30pm on SBS TV. Catch up on the first and second episode at SBS On Demand (sbs.com.au/ondemand/).

For more information on Oman, contact Mona Tannous at Tourism Oman, (02) 9286 8930 or mona@tourismoman.com.au