BabuK
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- Jul 30, 2008
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Prof Fidelis Massao
Tanzania and US researchers working in the hominid fossils' hot spots of Laetoli and Olduvai Gorge have reported historical findings that they say will re-write the history mankind.
Prof Fidelis Massao, a lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam's Department of History and Archaeology described the discoveries as the find of the millennia.
"All what Palaeontologists Dr Louis and Mary Leakey discovered in the past years will be rendered obsolete when our discoveries are made public," he said.
For nearly 20 years, the UDSM Don, Prof Masao together with Prof Robert Blumenschine of the Rutgers University in the United States have been carrying out a series of landscape archaeological research projects in Arusha, the cradle of mankind.
"There are very strange discoveries never dreamed of before," he said.
"We are keeping them under wraps at the moment, but once revealed, the world
will be flocking en-masse to Olduvai to get a glimpse of our findings," Prof Masao noted.
Godfrey Ole Moita, Head of Laetoli archaeological site confirmed that the two sites-Olduvai and Laetoli have recently recorded new discoveries set to hold the world spellbound when publicized.
"The findings will absolutely revolutionize human history as we know it," he said.
He also pointed out that the new discoveries will change the country's tourism from the current wildlife focused one to ‘time-travelling' concept of retracing the world past existence in Tanzania.
Seconding the view, the Deputy Chairperson of South African Tourism Zweli Vincent Mntambo said:
"It is a well-known fact that all people in the world originated from Africa and traces indicate that the first human beings walked earth in the Ngorongoro site of Northern Tanzania."
"South Africa is working on a projected dubbed Palaeo tourism and so far the Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli archaeological sites of Northern Tanzania will be our main focus in the mission to bring the world to Africa to retrace their human roots and history," he divulged.
He said Arusha should be prepared for the millions of ‘time travelling' global visitors and scientists who will soon be flocking to the city.
At the moment the combined figure of tourists who visit both Olduvai and Laetoli where human ancestors, Australopithecus Afarensis are said to have lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago, peaks at between 300 and 500 people per day.
Olduvai Gorge, located within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) is one of the best-known sites worldwide for the study of human evolution and currently shows traces of the primates' evolution dating back more than 2 million years.
Other than Olduvai gorge, the Ngorongoro area has another historical site just adjacent to the former Laetoli archaelogical site which is the only place on earth where three sets of real, live footprints of human beings who lived there nearly 4 million years have been immortalized on rocky grounds.
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=71898
Source: The Guardian
