Arusha — TANZANIA is set to garner its own unique global record in coming up with what could turn up the 'world's largest human history museum' built right on the archaeological discovery sites.
Constructed under the auspices of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), the Olduvai Gorge Museum houses all the archaeological findings, artefacts as well as replicas from various sites in Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa, among other places.
"Here people will get an opportunity to see the remains of 'Lucy' the so-called grandmother of humanity," explained Dr Agnes Gidna, a conservator from the National Museum headquarters in Dar es Salaam.
Dr Gidna revealed that Lucy was the most complete skeleton of an early human ancestor ever discovered. The 'lady' who lived some 3.2 million years ago, is a member of the Australopithecus afarensis - whose fossils were discovered in Ethiopia.
Beating that, however, is Tanzania's own set of hominid footprints dating back to four million years and which were traced at the adjacent Laetoli site.
As for the museum facility, the Conservator said Olduvai Gorge is undisputed the largest in Africa structural wise, but can also be the world's largest 'on-site,'museum; "Because this one stands right on the ground where discoveries were made," she clarified.
"This is the most ambitious project in the country's tourism industry and even before official launch the museum is attracting hundreds of foreign visitors, this will also serve as referral research centre for scholars from around the world," explained Ms Joyce Mgaya, the Acting Public Relations Manager at NCAA.
Olduvai Gorge, the Archaeological and Excavation site where Dr Mary Leakey together with her husband Louis once worked, is in the process of converting the former scientist's residential and working building into Museum.
Earlier on, Engineer Joshua Mwankunde, the Manager in-charge of the Cultural Heritage Department at the Ngorongoro Conservation Area stated that the government was negotiating with Nairobi over the possibilities for Kenya to bring into Tanzania, all artefacts, souvenirs, tools and personal belongings of the legendary scientist, Dr Mary Leakey, so that they may also be displayed at the Olduvai Museum.
The new and rather large museum facility at the Olduvai Ravine Site have given new lease of life to the archaeological site which has been the source of human remains discoveries since 1930s.
Dr Mary Leakey, who died 21 years ago, on December 9, 1996 had been working in the area for decades before retiring in 1984, when she left the country and moved to Nairobi, Kenya.
She was born in 1913 and was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape now believed to be among the human ancestors.
Dr Leakey also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge and for much of her career, spanning more than 50 years in Tanzania; she worked alongside her husband, Dr Louis Leakey, at the archaeological site located within the Olbalbal Ward in Ngorongoro Division, where they uncovered the tools and fossils of ancient hominines.
She developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. And was the one who discovered the Laetoli footprints. It was at the other Laetoli site, where she again discovered Hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.
During her 50 years' career in Northern Tanzania, Dr Leakey discovered fifteen new species of other animals and one new genus.
In 1972, after the death of her husband, Leakey became director of excavation at the Olduvai, the site was then under the antique department of the Ministry for Tourism.
She helped to establish a Leakey family tradition of palaeoanthropology by field training her son. The Leakeys started work in Tanzania in 1931.
That was after Dr Louis Leakey came across some Olduvai fossils in Berlin Germany and decided that Olduvai Gorge must be holding crucial information on human origins.
He travelled to Ngorongoro via Nairobi in a seven-hour journey and once there he started excavation work. Later Louis and Mary Leakey became the archaeologists responsible for most of the excavations and discoveries of the hominid fossils in Olduvai Gorge.
Their finds, when added to the prior work of Raymond Dart and Robert Broom, were to convince majority of aleoanthropologists worldwide that humans originally evolved in Africa and the first man must have lived in Tanzania.
Tanzania: Could This Be World's Largest Human History Museum?
Constructed under the auspices of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), the Olduvai Gorge Museum houses all the archaeological findings, artefacts as well as replicas from various sites in Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa, among other places.
"Here people will get an opportunity to see the remains of 'Lucy' the so-called grandmother of humanity," explained Dr Agnes Gidna, a conservator from the National Museum headquarters in Dar es Salaam.
Dr Gidna revealed that Lucy was the most complete skeleton of an early human ancestor ever discovered. The 'lady' who lived some 3.2 million years ago, is a member of the Australopithecus afarensis - whose fossils were discovered in Ethiopia.
Beating that, however, is Tanzania's own set of hominid footprints dating back to four million years and which were traced at the adjacent Laetoli site.
As for the museum facility, the Conservator said Olduvai Gorge is undisputed the largest in Africa structural wise, but can also be the world's largest 'on-site,'museum; "Because this one stands right on the ground where discoveries were made," she clarified.
"This is the most ambitious project in the country's tourism industry and even before official launch the museum is attracting hundreds of foreign visitors, this will also serve as referral research centre for scholars from around the world," explained Ms Joyce Mgaya, the Acting Public Relations Manager at NCAA.
Olduvai Gorge, the Archaeological and Excavation site where Dr Mary Leakey together with her husband Louis once worked, is in the process of converting the former scientist's residential and working building into Museum.
Earlier on, Engineer Joshua Mwankunde, the Manager in-charge of the Cultural Heritage Department at the Ngorongoro Conservation Area stated that the government was negotiating with Nairobi over the possibilities for Kenya to bring into Tanzania, all artefacts, souvenirs, tools and personal belongings of the legendary scientist, Dr Mary Leakey, so that they may also be displayed at the Olduvai Museum.
The new and rather large museum facility at the Olduvai Ravine Site have given new lease of life to the archaeological site which has been the source of human remains discoveries since 1930s.
Dr Mary Leakey, who died 21 years ago, on December 9, 1996 had been working in the area for decades before retiring in 1984, when she left the country and moved to Nairobi, Kenya.
She was born in 1913 and was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape now believed to be among the human ancestors.
Dr Leakey also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge and for much of her career, spanning more than 50 years in Tanzania; she worked alongside her husband, Dr Louis Leakey, at the archaeological site located within the Olbalbal Ward in Ngorongoro Division, where they uncovered the tools and fossils of ancient hominines.
She developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. And was the one who discovered the Laetoli footprints. It was at the other Laetoli site, where she again discovered Hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.
During her 50 years' career in Northern Tanzania, Dr Leakey discovered fifteen new species of other animals and one new genus.
In 1972, after the death of her husband, Leakey became director of excavation at the Olduvai, the site was then under the antique department of the Ministry for Tourism.
She helped to establish a Leakey family tradition of palaeoanthropology by field training her son. The Leakeys started work in Tanzania in 1931.
That was after Dr Louis Leakey came across some Olduvai fossils in Berlin Germany and decided that Olduvai Gorge must be holding crucial information on human origins.
He travelled to Ngorongoro via Nairobi in a seven-hour journey and once there he started excavation work. Later Louis and Mary Leakey became the archaeologists responsible for most of the excavations and discoveries of the hominid fossils in Olduvai Gorge.
Their finds, when added to the prior work of Raymond Dart and Robert Broom, were to convince majority of aleoanthropologists worldwide that humans originally evolved in Africa and the first man must have lived in Tanzania.
Tanzania: Could This Be World's Largest Human History Museum?
