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By TOM PAULSON
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – It is fitting that one of the most signature discoveries of humankind — a finding that has helped define a big part of our prehistory — would take place in one of the most unusual and historic places on the planet.
As the ancient fossil known as Lucy indicates, that portion of northern East Africa we now call Ethiopia may well have been the cradle of humanity. The oldest known fossils of modern humans, dated at 190,000 years old, have been found there along with the remains of chimplike ancestors who preceded Lucy by more than 2.5 million years.
But Ethiopia’s contributions certainly didn’t stop with possibly launching human evolution that eventually spread these inquisitive and creative hairless apes all over the place to ultimately build skyscrapers, fly airplanes and try to drive a car while talking on a cell phone.
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| This ceramic head is from the Beta Israel (literally, “House of Israel”) culture of Ethiopia, comprised of Jews of Ethiopian decent who have had a presence in the country since the 14th century. They are known for agriculture as well as exquisite crafts and jewelry, blacksmithing and pottery making. | ||
As the exhibit at the Pacific Science Center emphasizes, Ethiopia has continued to play a significant — if often unrecognized — role in the global and cultural affairs of Homo sapiens up to the present.
Ethiopia is mentioned in the Bible many times — beginning with the book of Genesis, as Cush or Abyssinia, as perhaps the home of King Solomon’s Queen of Sheba and even of one of Moses’ wives. It is the only African country that successfully fought off European colonization, except for a brief occupation by Mussolini’s forces during World War II. It has long been a spiritual home for strong traditional communities of Christians, Muslims, Jews and even (symbolically, at least) for the cannabis-celebrating Rastafari movement, named after the precoronation name of Ethiopia’s last emperor, Haile Selassie, who was deposed the same year, 1974, that Lucy was discovered.
And, especially for Seattle residents, it is important to mention that ninth century Ethiopia also gave us coffee.
“But all anyone ever thinks about when you mention Ethiopia is famine,” chuckled Ezra Teshome, a leading figure in Seattle’s large Ethiopian community who moved here from Addis Ababa in 1971. “We’re hoping that Lucy coming here will provide an opportunity for people to learn more about the rich culture and history of the place.”
Diana Johns, the lead curator for the Lucy exhibit at the science center, worked with Teshome and others to make sure that this happens for visitors.
“People will come at the science in many different ways,” Johns said, and the Ethiopian context is critical. It’s impossible to talk about Lucy without talking about Ethiopia, she said, adding that it’s likewise impossible to talk about Ethiopia without talking about its amazingly rich — and sometimes peculiar — religious and cultural history.
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| The Ethiopian civilization of Aksum produced the first indigenous coinage in Africa. This example is from the reign of King Endubis, the first African king to mint coins. | ||
“Take the Ark of the Covenant, for example,” Johns said. This legendary container of Moses’ stone tablets — the same ones Indiana Jones sought in the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” — is said to reside under lock-and-key in a church in Axum, Ethiopia. Johns added that Haile Selassie is still celebrated by many Ethiopians as the final heir to the so-called Solomonic Dynasty (again, thanks to the Queen of Sheba) as a direct descendent of King Solomon.
“In Ethiopia, myth and fact mix comfortably together,” Johns said.
It can also be hard to remember what year it is in Ethiopia. In the late 1500s, when the Christian world was ordered to change from the Julian calendar system to the Gregorian system (our current dating and time-keeping system), Ethiopia refused. As such, the country continues to stubbornly live about seven years in the past.
This fascinating East African country is not without its problems, of course. Despite its rich and proud history, it remains one of the poorest nations in the world and today has been again caught up in the midst of a food crisis. Following the toppling of Selassie, a brutal Communist regime set up shop, leading to years of strife and civil war. In the mid-1990s, a democratically elected government was established but well after that had happened elsewhere in Africa.
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| The roof of the 12th-century Church of St. George, perhaps the best known of all rock-hewn churches in Lalibela. | ||
Even the decision by the Ethiopian government to allow Lucy to travel and be exhibited abroad was viewed with suspicion and criticism by some who either thought it was inappropriate to move the fossils out of the country or that officials would misuse the revenue from the exhibit.
“There is still a lot of mistrust,” Teshome said.
And for such a deeply religious country, how do Ethiopians resolve the potential for conflict between Lucy’s place in evolutionary science and some of the more traditional Judeo-Christian (and Muslim) teachings of human origins?
“In Ethiopia, it’s not a big issue because we don’t put science and religion against each other,” Teshome said.