In a bid to promote Ethiopian heritage and offer a glimpse into human history, a replica of one of mankind’s oldest fossils is on display in Qatar this week.
The original 3.2 million-year-old artifact, named “Lucy” after the popular Beatles song Lucy in the sky with diamonds, is tucked away in a sealed vault at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.
But a master cast of the fossil is being exhibited at the Qatar Fine Arts Society at Katara Cultural Village through March 5.
The bones are part of a new exhibition celebrating Ethiopian culture and tradition that was inaugurated over the weekend by Ethiopian Ambassador Mesganu Arga Moach, and is being held in conjunction with the Ethiopian Embassy and the Ministry of Culture.
Speaking to Doha News, Teshome Regassa, an education officer at the National Museum of Ethiopia, and a member of the 40-person traveling delegation from Ethiopia, said:
“It’s the first time that we’ve held something like this. It’s a project to celebrate Ethiopian culture here, and to bring a little bit of home to the Ethiopian community here as part of the first ever Ethiopian Cultural Day.”
Regassa added that the specimen on display at Katara was one of two high-quality gypsum “master” casts created after the fossil’s discovery in 1974 for use at exhibitions around the world.
“The original Lucy is in a secure temperature-and-humidity-controlled vault at the National Museum. We don’t take her out as the skeleton is vulnerable to damage upon moving,” he said.
Lucy’s background
Lucy, called “Dinkinesh” in Ethiopia, a name that means “you are marvelous” in Amharic, was discovered four decades ago at an archaeological site near the village Hadar by renowned American paleontologist Donald Johanson.
About 40 percent of Lucy’s skeleton has been found, and provides insight into the physical characteristics of the ancient early human species hominin.
Dubbed the “cradle of civilization,” Ethiopia is home to 12 of some 14 of the earliest human fossils.
The exhibition, which runs daily through Thursday, also features several art works by prominent Ethiopian artists including renowned Ethiopian female artist Desta Hagos, Birhane Mehari, and Agegnehu Engida, and pictures of other fossils and the country’s numerous UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Thoughts?
3.2 Million years old. I imagine its hard for some people to grapple with that.
Cool, hopefully the population can learn something about the evolution of hominids and gow evoluiton works.
Learning the evolution history of modern day humans teaches us how pointless it is to argue over pieces of land or non existent deities and also demonstrates how genetically similar we all are from that small band of humans that left Africa. (Genetic diversity within Africa is much greater than outside despite our superficial differences)
The ‘Out-of-Africa’ hypothesis is just that, a hypothesis.
Not exactly true it is pretty well established. Man kind may have crossed back and forth many times but our ancestors are from Africa.
It is a theory, not a hypothesis. Scientific theories are assumed to be true until proven otherwise.
It’s a hypothesis.
What cracks me up that this the “lucy” everyone learns about, and it’s just a couple of tiny bits of bone. As if you could make some great conclusions about humankind’s origins from them… haha, what a joke
Obviously you didn’t pay attention in science if you even attended the classes. Please don’t spread your ignorance
So, if we evolved from monkeys, how come there are still monkeys around?!!
^_^…
This is a common misconception, we did not evolve from monkeys we evolved from a common ancestor.
Relax, he was obviously being sarcastic. The whole “monkey” fallacy is something that almost everyone learns about in middle school!
If evolution was true, there should be large numbers of intermediate fossil organisms present in the fossil record. Despite over a hundred years of intensive world wide research into the fossil record, the ‘missing links’ are still well and truly ‘missing’.
Evolutionists such as Stephen Jay Gould reluctantly concede this when they say, “The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not based on the evidence of fossils.”
That is a misnomer, there are no such things as “missing links” in the fossil record, However, Luckily the theory of evolution is not based solely on the fossil record, far from it.
If charmanders evolve into charmeleons why are there still charmanders around?
Since you seem to have all the answers, tell me this: how come Scyther cannot learn Fly?
He cant achieve enough thrust because his back wings have their movement obstructed by his over sized upper arms, which are also spherical that makes him less aerodynamic than that Pidgey. His winged arms also lack enough surface area to help achieve any thrusts relative to his weight. He’s the chicken of the flying/bug pokemon world.
Oh come on!!
Seriously? DN, “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” is a song about LSD, Where did you find the link to Ethiopian “Lucy”?
The song was named after the drug.
The artefact was named after the song.
To quote (as I often do) wikipedia:
In the afternoon, everyone on the expedition returned to the gully, sectioning off the site and preparing for careful collection, which eventually took three weeks. That first evening they celebrated at the camp. At some stage during the evening, they nicknamed the fossil AL 288-1 as Lucy, after the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, which was being played loudly and repeatedly on a tape recorder in the camp.[4]
SNAP
Actually it was named after the song. The archaeological team played a cassette the night they found her and the song was included on it. Someone suggested they call her Lucy. This is a pretty well known fact actually. Hope this clears it up for you
Quite interesting. Thanks for sharing that.
Sorry that is not actually true. A common myth. Actually named after one of lennon’s kids school drawings
It’s a pretty crap drawing :-p
I prefer the drug story.
Yeah me too but unfortunatly that’s not the truth….
So are you saying I can’t irrationally choose to believe something because it’s a better story, rather than accept that the fact prove the story to be wrong? Boo.
Thank you guys for clarifying this.
Kind of an odd display for an Islamic Country.
What are you trying to say? Islamic societies don’t like the truth..,,
Islamic societies have the, sorry, their truth.
No, just that it is being displayed as an ancient early human species, when Islam doesn’t support evolution. If it was displayed as another species, I wouldn’t find it odd.
Islamic scholars don’t appear to have reached any consensus on evolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_views_on_evolution
No reason why they shouldn’t (although of course I know why they won’t)……the huge weight of evidence in favour of evolution is so overwhelming, denying it is almost as ludicrous and ignorant as denying gravity.
The reason they deny it is actually quite simple. In their view the koran is the unaltered word of God, everything in it literally true. However evolution invalidates the story of Adam and eve. So if one part is proved incorrect it casts doubt on their whole faith and the Koran as the cornerstone of it.
Well their wrong, they are scholars of only one book. Those that deny it are free to do so but it doesn’t alter the fact that the history of evolution in planet earth is an indisputable fact. It just makes them look stupid and uneducated. Only recently we had an ‘Islamic scholar’ taking in the use saying the sun revolves round the earth… God help the faithful….
The Quran nentions about the planets revolving around the Sun. The scholar in question himself may have not studied the Quran. As for the “induspatable” facts till some time ago Pluto being a planet was an indisputable fact. Today it is not considered one. big bang theory was explained as the beginning of the earth. Today it also stands in dispute.next time before blabbering about undisputed facts a sjmple google search would suffice before calling others ignorants. As for Muslims and their beliefs, I dont think any Muslim is looking for a certificate from MIMH. They have their beliefs which they seem happy with.
The “induspatable” fact is that Pluto is there, whether we call it a planet or a banana. Also the big bang theory makes no claim to how the earth originated, rather the core accretion theory attempts to explain the formation of the earth.
It’s in disputable until someone proves otherwise, that’s the beauty of the scientific method. When bits of the Koran are proved incorrect, someone wants to kill me…..
It depends on your view, MIMH. If you leave the earth on a spaceship you can also say that the earth moves away from you. And that’s because there isn’t a single preferred point in the universe that could be used as a reference. So, yes, the sun evolves around the earth depending on how you look at it.
I am aware of other scholars proposing their theories on how it can be accepted, but is that the same stance that Qatar takes?
I’m not a science person, but…
It IS a different species. “Lucy” is a Australopithecus afarensis species. Human is a H. sapiens species.
If I’m wrong can someone please correct me.
That is what I understand as well. Lucy is not even from the same genus as modern humans as far as I am aware.
Sorry, I didn’t realize that your comment referred to text in the body of the article.
I’ll restate – I’m no science person, but yes, as I understand it, Lucy is like a cousin, not a sibling. Same “Family” in a Linnaean sense, and same tribe, but different genus.
Actually, Islam doesn’t support evolution only when it comes to humans, since we are all the children of Adam and Eve. The Quran doesn’t say that all animals were created by God in the same way it’s described in the Old Testament.
That is exactly what I meant to say. Maybe, I didnt word it correctly?
As opposed to normal in a Hindu one?
I dunno, there is no “Hindu country” as far as I am aware.
You’re over thinking it 😉
This must be Eve then, and Adam is an African.
I wonder if they could get a work visa for these Africans…..
We’ve got monkeys like you, why can’t we get them.
I think it’s better to try avoid “below the belt” tirade/comments..
Hehe, you’re so smart!
Deleting this and subsequent comments for irrelevance.
Wow, great to see this replica again after having seen it in Addis last year. Now only need to find authentic Ethiopian food in Doha.
There are plenty Ethipian restaurants in Doha.
Please name one or two
at the back of American Hospital “HABESHA ETHIOPIAN RESTAURANT /
opposite to the Zone shopping center , there are two here one is Promise and the other one is Abyssinia
Thanks for sharing. Are they good for families or just basic restaurants for labourers with a tight budget?
Habesha is a basic restaurant, like the cafeterias that you find around here. It’s not filled with labourers or anything but very limited seating space.
It would be nice to attend. Ethiopian culture is interesting and I love their music.
I am glad Katara has organized this.
People jump to too many conclusions about Muslims!
I’m a Muslim and I believe in evolution, of course I do because its irrefutable fact.
I also don’t see any contradiction between Islam and evolution – infact i think the more you understand the nature of things, the more appreciate the beauty of life our religion.
I wouldnt let the comments of a few misunderstood people represent my religion, nor do I think its fair of people outside islam to do the same to us. People say silly things all the time… Doesnt mean we all beleive that!
The VAST majority of Muslims arent backwards irrational fixed-view people like so many perceive us to be!
Good for you! I am happy that you are comfortable in your beliefs and also scientific pursuits. I don’t think it is too hard to accept both
It certainly isnt hard 🙂
I do think alot of people confuse culture with religion though. Alot of the negative aspects we hear of islam (particularly closed-minded comments) comes from a cultural bias, not a religious one.
What ‘Qataris’ perceive as Islam is different from what i (from the UK) perceive it as, because our cultures are very different. Alot of what people think are ‘religious’ practices here in qatar (say, women covering shoulders) are to me something born out of the islamically adopted culture here, but its certainly not an islamic rule as i see it.
If more muslims were culturally aware, i think we’d all get along better!
anyway, its getting abit off topic!
i for one am going to enjoy this amazing opportunity to connect with our history!
I can just tell itll be humbling!
I’m not trying to be funny, just curious. But could you try and explain how you align the Koran, being the unchanging truth, and evolution? I can only see that you have to take the story of Adam and Eve as an analogy and not the truth? I’m not trying to bash your religion, just interested in finding out
Tbh, I haven’t really thought about it much… So to say, its certainly not something that weighs in on why I choose to practise Islam or believe what I believe etc.
But, what my interpretation is that everything we observe can be described by the laws of physics we study. I.e. we have evolution, and evolution did lead to modern humans, but what’s to say that evolution isn’t gods will (the Quran has several quotes supporting this like – 71.14. ”He has created you in diverse (and successive) stages.”)
The Quran teaches that mankind came after many of the beasts (animals) that had already populated earth, and I don’t see why humonids, heck even modern humans, couldn’t be amongst them. But what is a pivotal moment is when Adam is the first human created by god who has free will… I’m understanding Islam, there’s a lot to be read up and understood about free will, predestination etc…but we humans uniquely have free will and the right to do what we want…I believe Adam was the first of the people like us today.
In Islam we have 100s of thousands of prophets spanning eons… Each there own appointed time and place to give fairness to all fledgling mankind as it learned to grow throughout the world. I think Adam is the first of this ‘ummah’ or as its enterprted, grand community.
Fun fact: Judaism and Christian prophets are also all Islamic prophets too! I don’t get why so many people think its one or the other, or that ’god’ is different from ’allah’…its all the same to me, and everyone is free to believe in what they wish and practice safely 🙂
Btw..this whole thing is just my interpretation, and kind of of the wall as piecing together my knowledge of Islam and my beliefs that come as part of my upbringing, my scientific nature (I’m medical student turned engineer) and my own feelings…. I don’t represent all Muslims, and I certainly wish when someone else says something silly, or contradictory etc.. That everyone realises what they’re saying is just their own opinion… 🙂
Hope that rushed answer gave some insight 🙂
Don’t “believe” in evolution. Understand it, that’s better.
nice, but they’re two different things… i.e. I “understand” communism but i dont “believe” in it… (so to speak)
though i understand evolution AND I because of that i believe in it.
Think about two opposing physics theories… you can understand both of them, but you have to at some point weigh in your judgement and pick a side.
🙂
Fun discussion, all! Closing the thread now.