Lucy

I saw Lucy’s Legacy with my sister today at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. For those not familiar with what Lucy is, she was a member of the species Australopithecus afarensis who lived approximately 3.2 million years ago. A. afarensis is thought to be an ancestor of modern humans. 40% of Lucy’s skeleton was found in Ethiopia in a dig in November 1973. By the scientific community she is known as AL 288-1, however by most of the western world she is known as Lucy, and in Africa she is known as Dinkenesh.

The exhibit was educational and entertaining. At the entrance, you see a 7 million year timeline outlining a theoretical model of human evolution from the last common ancestor between modern humans and chimpanzees. On the next wall, there was a brief outline of Ethiopian history with context to what was going on in the rest of the world. Around you, there were artifacts ranging from prehistory, including stone tools, all the way to more modern artifacts. In the next room there was a movie of the various cultures throughout Ethiopia’s history. The two rooms after that contained much of the same thing, except in text, and a myriad of artifacts as well. These two rooms paid a lot of homage to the influence of Christianity and Islam on Ethiopia.

As I got to the next room, I came upon what I had expected, and what I had been waiting for. It was on the religious and philosophical implications of finding Lucy. Quite interesting. The room next to it contained lots of explanations on how Lucy was found, how they dated Lucy, what certain observations from Lucy and her environment implied about her environment, and other paleoanthropological questions and answers. And the next room was what all the build up was for. There was a beautiful diorama spanning the entire perimeter of the room outlining and depicting human evolution to quite a bit of detail. The room also contained the bones of Lucy herself, and an artist’s three-dimensional, life-sized portrayal of what scientists expect Lucy would have looked like.

Personally, I had a lot of fun. It was especially entertaining to eavesdrop onto other people’s conversations. “That poster says that we’re mutants!” Nevertheless, it was encouraging to see how many people actually were at a science museum. I would have expected it to have been relatively deserted, but to the contrary, it was almost uncomfortably packed. If anthropology, human history, science, or anything even vaguely related interests you, go see the exhibit.

Awesome, I would be interested in seeing that. Were you allowed to take photos?

Unfortunately, no. No photography was allowed. The exhibit is supposed to be going on tour throughout the U.S. for the next 6 years. I'm sure it will make its way to the north east.