The skeletal remains of Lucy, a 3.18 million-year-old human ancestor which rarely leaves Ethiopia, has left for Prague, Czech Republic.
Senior government officials of Ethiopia including Minister of Tourism Selamit Kassa and Czech Ambassador to Ethiopia Miroslav Kosek Thursday bade farewell to the remains of Lucy locally known as Dinknesh at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.
The ancient remains of the Australopithecus afarensis were discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. The finding was, at the time, the most complete ever found, and revolutionised the understanding of humanity’s ancestors.
“To date, Ethiopia has been promoting Lucy to the world; now it’s Lucy’s turn to promote the new Ethiopia to the whole world,” said Kassa.
She said this time 3.3 million years old, Ethiopia’s other earliest child ancestor will go on display in Europe, to showcase that the country is indeed the Land of Origins and the true cradle of humankind.
These most treasured fossils will be featured in a historic exhibition titled “Human Origins and Fossils” at the National Museum of the Czech Republic, opening on August 25, 2025.
In her current shape, Lucy consists of fossilised dental remains, skull fragments, parts of the pelvis and femur.
The fossilised skeleton of the 1.1-metre-tall (3.6 feet), 29-kilogramme (64-pound) Lucy last left Ethiopia between 2007 and 2013 when it toured US museums.
The hominid was named after the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” which the team that had found her listened to after the discovery.
Lucy walked on two legs and is thought to have died aged between 11 and 13 — considered an adult for this species.
She was believed to be the oldest human ancestor found until the discovery of “Toumai” in Chad in 2001 — a skull dated to be between six and seven million years old.
MG/as/APA