On the vast plains between
the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti’s Naabi Hill
Gate lies the Olduvai Gorge, a crack in the flat earth also referred
to as the ‘cradle of mankind’.
Veer off the main road that carries the army of safari minibuses between
the two game reserves, to the tiny Olduvai Gorge Museum, which sits
on the lip of the spectacular valley. Exhibits document the archaeological
significance of the area since the first excavations in 1911, when
a German professor looking for butterflies accidentally came across
prehistoric fossilised bones. A red-robed Masai tends the tiny two-roomed
museum, and the displays are well laid out with clear information on the
various archaeological digs. Louis Leakey and his wife Mary began
digging in 1933. 26 years later they found the fragmented skull of
the ‘nutcracker man’ dating back to 1 750 000 BC. A year
later another skull and set of bones was unearthed. A small hunched
ape-type creature with a large brain lived in Tanzania some two
million years ago. It is believed to be the direct descendent of modern
man. It was nicknamed ‘handy man’ because of stone tools
found nearby. Then in 1979 the Leakeys made another discovery that
further pushed back the date of the emergence of mankind: fossilised
footprints of upright two-legged creatures - a man, woman and child - over 3.5 million years old.
A total of 35 human remains have been discovered in the Gorge, as
well as those of prehistoric animals - the Deinotheruium, an elephant-type
creature with downward curving tusks, and the Hipparion, a three-toed
horse. The museum warrants only a 20-minute stop en route between
the two reserves, but there are interesting photographs of the Leakeys,
a full size copy of the set of footprints and a guide will point
out the various sites on the bottom of the valley floor.
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