Sunday, August 12, 2007

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, coming to the US

Ethiopians take a great deal of pride in the fact that there is a great deal of evidence that Ethiopia is the birthplace of humanity -- the National Museum in Addis Ababa proudly displays the bones of 'Lucy', the skeleton of a female hominid that was discovered by American paleoanthropologists, Donald Johanson and Tom Gray on the 24th of November, 1974, at the site of Hadar in Ethiopia. The skeleton was dubbed "Lucy", because the Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was playing the night the skeleton was discovered.

In addition to Lucy, another juvenile female hominid skeleton was found just a few years ago, offering a remarkable chance to study growth and development in what is believed to be an important human ancestor.

Lucy's bones will be doing a nationwide tour soon -- After years of negotiations of with the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas, Lucy’s bones will be displayed first in Houston, then in Washington, New York, Denver and Chicago, then to six other city destinations yet to be disclosed, until 2013. The government of Ethiopia hopes that Lucy's tour will 'boost tourism and increase Ethiopia's profile as the 'home of all humanity'."

No comments: