Filling in Our "Missing Links"

Have you wondered what life was like for the first humans? How they spent their time, what they liked and feared, how they interacted with one another? You'll have a chance to drop in on these folks this fall when Carnegie Museum of Natural History presents the exhibit Ancestors Unearthed: The Mystery of Human Origins.

Developed by more than 20 of the world's leading paleontologists and anthropologists, this exhibit uses the latest technology to tell the fascinating story of what life might have been like for humans thousands—even millions —of years ago.

Thirty moving and speaking animatronic figures "come to life," depicting the daily joys and struggles of different early humans, including the Australopithecines, Homo erectus, Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals. Each of four scenes depicts a specific time period ranging from 20,000 to four million years ago. The scenes are based on clues uncovered over the last 150 years by leading scientists working at archaeological sites where remains of our early ancestors have been discovered.

"As we approach the end of the second millennium, it is a time when we are seeking explanations that relate to us as human beings, questions such as where did we come from and where are we going," says Teit Ritzau, MD, exhibit developer from United Exhibits Group in Hellerup, Denmark. "This exhibit offers some suggestions about what happened in human development, based on the work of some of the most distinguished scientists in the world."

Also part of Ancestors Unearthed: The Mystery of Human Origins is a priceless collection of art and artifacts dating back 35,000 years, including statues of carved and fired clay, stone, shell, ivory and bone. These European treasures, considered invaluable from an artistic and scientific standpoint, are on loan in a rare cultural exchange from the Moravian Museum Brno, the oldest museum in the Czech Republic, where they had been hidden in vaults since before World War I.

The highlight of the collection is the renowned Venus of Vestonice, one of the earliest pieces of three-dimensional art ever created by modern humans, and among the first evidence of fired clay. The Venus of Vestonice is the most acclaimed object in all Czech museums and art galleries, and Czech children learn about the significance of the Venus figures very early in their schooling.

"These artifacts take us back to a time in human history more than 20,000 years ago when men and women like us created mankind's first art, the first ceramic technology, and other new ways of looking at the world that were truly revolutionary," says Harvey Steele, president of the Archaeological Society of Oregon. "In the Western Hemisphere, for the first time ever, we can experience the surviving fragments and traces of the turning point in human history. I, for one, am overwhelmed."

—Kathryn M. Duda