Anthro notes

PRESENTING HUMAN

EVOLUTION TO THE PUBLIC:

THE SMITHSONIAN'S HALL OF

HUMAN ORIGINS

by Rick Potts

At

twelve o'clock

noon, on March

17, 1910, ^the Smithsonian's

newly

built National

Museum of

Natural History

opened

its

doors

tothe public for thefirsttime.

Exacdv one hundred

yearslaterthe

museum

chose

tocelebratethisauspiciousoccasion withthe

open-

ing

of

thelong-awaitedexhibition,The

David H.

Koch

Hall

of

Human

Origins.This

major

exhibition

opened

atexactly

noon on March

17,

2010

to

hundreds of

visitorseagerto seethewidelypublicized

human

originshall.

The

exhibitionpresentsnearly

300

objects,including original fossils

and

artifacts,alongwith exactreplicas

of

fragile

and unique specimens

that

must be

kept

and

pro- tected inthecountries

where

they

were

found.

The main purpose of

the

Hall

of

Human

Originsis to

show

the evi-

dence of

humanity's evolutionovertime;

how

the devel-

opment of human

^features helps us

understand who we

are as a speciestoday;

and why knowing about

thispro- cessisimportant.

Not

just

based on Smithsonian

research, the exhibitis

an

international effortbuilt

on Smithsonian

partnershipswith

more

than

60

researchinstitutions

and more

than

100

scientists

and

educators

from around

the

w

^rorld.

What Does

It

Mean To Be Human?

The

exhibition

and

its

companion

websiteoffersthe

pub-

lic

an

opportunitytoexplorethescientificfinds that

shed

light

on one of

the significantsparksto

human

curiosity

—

our own

origins.

The primary theme of

the exhibitionis

not

an

answer,butrather aquestion:

What

Doesit

Mean

tobe

Human?This

centralquestiongoestotheheart

of human

curiosity: whoare

we

as

human

beings,

how

did

we

get here,

and

where are

we

going?

By choosing

a question for

our

exhibitiontheme,thegoalistoinviteeach

museum

visitor to explorethescientificdiscoveries

about human

origins

and

to

connect

their lives

and

personalperspectives to the evidence

of how our

speciesevolved.

Inthe central area

of

the

L-shaped

exhibition,visitorsare invited totypein theiranswerstothiscentralquestion

What

does

it

mean

^to

be human?' Their

responses,

which

are

posted on our web

^site,

www. HumanOrigins.

si.

edu

.help

inform

us

of

the

immense

diversity

of

thoughts

our mu- seum and web

visitors

have

astheyencountertheevidence of

human

evolution.

Answers

tothisquestionare

informed by many

perspectives

drawn from

philosophy,religion,the arts,the sciences,

and

every-daylifeexperiences.

The Story Unfolds

Fossils

and

archeologicalfindshighlighted

both

inthe exhi- bition

and

websitereflect,forexample,theroots

of

walk- ingupright, transitions intechnology,

enlargement of

the brain,

changes

inthe face

and

thebody,

and

the diversity

of

species that are part

of our

evolutionary tree as re- flected in

our

biologicalancestors

and

nearestrelativesthat

Exhibithall photos, courtesy ChipClark

sciencehas sofaruncovered.

The

hall'sinteractivedisplays take

our

visitors

back through

timetosee

how

these early predecessorslived,the survival challengestheyfaced,

and

theelements

of humanness

they

had accumulated

atcer- tainpoints in time.

Every

fossilhasa story totell

because each one was once

part

of

a living,breathingindividual

whose

^species

had

evolved

some combination of

the features that define

human

beingstoday.

As

abaseline,each

of

these species

walked

upright

and had

small eye teeth (canine teeth).

Bipedality

and

small canines define all

members of our

familytree

back

toat least6 million years ago.

The

earliest

of

these species

walked

upright

and had

long,

powerful arms —

^a

^{union of}

features that persisted for

about

4mil- lion years

and

enabledthese oldestancestors

and

evolu- tionarycousinsto

walk on

the

ground and

climb treesto find

food and

^safety.

Laterspecies

abandoned

theirexpertise inthetrees as they

developed

stone

toolmaking

skills

and somewhat

en- largedbrains.Stilllaterspecies,like

Homo

heidelbergensis,

were

thefirst

we know of

to buildhearths

and

shelters,

and

to

hunt

using

wooden

spears.Laterintime,theNeanderthals

{Homo

neandeiihalensis)

were

verycleverat

making

tools

and

usinglocal

food and

stoneresources;they

even

buriedtheir

dead on

occasion

and

created symbolic artifacts

of

un-

known meaning

to us today.

However,

all

of

thesespecies, including

mam

sidebranches,are

no

longeraround;their

ways of

life

now

extinct,theyleave

our own

species,

Homo

sapiens,asthelastsurvivor

of

a

once

diverseevolutionary

tree.

In 1910,the scientificrecord

of human

origins con- sisted

of

a

few dozen

fossils,mostlythe

bones of

the

famed Neanderthals of Europe. Nearly

all

of

thefossils,archeo- logicalremains,

and

genetic findings that a natural history

museum can

offer

on

this subject

have been found over

the pastcentury.

Now,

in2010, thescience

of human

ori- ginsis

informed by more

than 6,000fossilindividuals,rang- ing

from

isolatedteeth towell-preservedskeletons,spread out overthepast 6 millionyears.

These

fossilsalongwith

hundreds of thousands of

archeologicalremains,

which echo

the

ways of

life

of

early

human

species, offer are-

markable

record

of

theaccumulation

of

features that

make

the

human

species unique.

Milestones

in

Becoming Human

Humans evolved over

millions

of

years inresponseto a

changing

world.

The

6 million years

of human

evolution

have comprised one of

the

most

dramatic eras

of

envi-

ronmental change

inEarth'shistory,withlargeswings be-

tween warm and

cold,

and between wet and

dry.

The Hall

of

Human

Originsisthefirstexhibition

on human

evolution toexplore the

drama of

climate

change and

the survival challengesitpresentedto

our

earlyancestors.

These

chal- lengessetthe stage for thechanges

—

the adaptations

—

that

evolved over

time.

The

exhibitionisorganized

around

aseries

of

displays thatpresentthekey milestonesin

human

evolution.In

one

area,adults

and

childrenalikeenjoy steppingin

an

exact reproduction

of

the oldest

known

bipedalfootprints, 3.6 millionyearsold,

made by

the speciesAustralopithecusafarensis

Page 12

(the

most famous

fossil

of which

is

known

asLucy).

An-

otherarea

shows

that,

by about

2 million years ago,

our

ancestors

began

to delayeatingtheirfood, carryingitto places

where meat

could

be butchered and bones

with nutritious

marrow

could

be smashed

open. Laterintime,

between

800,000

and 400,000

years ago, there is

ample

evidence

of

hearths

where food was cooked and of

well-

made

shelters indicating that

our

ancestors

made camp-

sites.Stilllater,

by about

130,000years ago,early

groups of our own

species

exchanged

stonematerials across vastdis- tances

of more than 100 km.

This evidence

shows

thebe- ginning

of

social

networks

thatstretched acrossthosean- cientlandscapes.

They

didn't

have

Twitter or

Facebook,

that's for sure

—

but thev kepttrack

of one

another

from

afar,

and

they

knew who had what

tooffer!

The

exhibitionisfilledwithintriguing highlightsalong themilestonetrail.

The

fastest

pace of

brain

enlargement began around

800,000yearsago,

and

led totheevolution

by about 200,000

years

ago of

the

two

largest-brained species,theNeanderthals

and

ourselves.

By

thistime,chil-

dren took

a

long

timeto

grow

up, since large brains take

many

years tomature.Adults

were

facedwithsignificant

demands

to find nutritious

food

tofeed the brain

of each

childas

he

or shegrew. Challenges,

of

course, still

echo prominently

in

our

lives today

and can be

traced to the evolution

of

thebig

human

brain

over hundreds of

thou- sands

of

years

and

the

prolonged growth of

thebrainin everylivingperson.

The

exhibitionalsoexplores the oldeststonetechnolo- gies,

which remained

largely

unchanged

for

more

thana million years.

The

exhibition

shows how

the long-lived

handaxe

traditioneventuallygave

way

tosmaller

and more

innovativetechnologies: forexample,projectilepoints

by

100,000yearsago,

used

tocatchfast

and dangerous

prey;

and sewing

needles

by about

25,000years ago, enabling early

members of our

species to

make

snug-fittingcloth- ing. Clothing

made

the difference

between

life

and

death aspopulations

moved

intoice-agehabitats.

Among

the

most

interesting

of human

capabilitiesis

our

use

of

symboliclanguage.

The

oldest cluesconcerning

complex symbols

are pieces

of pigment —

^{faceted sticks}

and lumps of ocher

(yellowish, redish,

brownish

incolor)

and

limonite(yellowish-browncolor), essentiallythe world's oldest crayons, dated to

250,000

years old.

The

use

of

colorto

mark

objects,or

perhaps even

the

body

tocreate asense

of

personal or

group

identity,isthebest evidence

we have

for

when

language, the

most complex of our

symbolicabilities, first

emerged.

As

visitorsexplore the Hall

and

website, thereare

ample

opportunities to learn

about our own

species,

Homo

sapiens,

which

evolved

around

200,000years ago.

By about

17,000 years ago,allspecies

of

early

humans

except

our own had become

extinct.

Despite our

prevalencetoday,

even our

species

had

its

endangered moments. Between

90,000

and

70,000years ago, asAfrican

environments

oscillated be-

tween drought and moist

times,the populationthat

gave

risetoalmostall

of

the geneticdiversity

among

the world's

peoples today

had dwindled

dramatically to

somewhere between

10,000

and 600 reproducing

adults.

We

almost

became

extinct.

However, by

thattime,

Homo

^sapiens

had developed

a certain resilience in the face

of

millions

of

years

of

survivalchallenges.

By about

12,000years ago,pockets

of people

insev- eralregions

began

domesticating

some

plants

and

animals.

These

activities ultimately

gave

riseto the agriculture

on which modern

societies

depend. The

exhibitionprovides

an

opportunity to

contemplate

the

enormous pace of

population

growth

since thattime,

our deep

influence

on

the planet,

and how our

species

became

aturningpointin the history

of

life.

Among

^theHall's

many

interactivedis- plays,

one of

the

most

intriguingis a

game

called

'Keep Your

SpeciesAlive,'in

which

the players

imagine

the sig- nificance

of

keydecisions for thefuture.

Reflections

As

thecurator

of

the

Hall

_of

Human

Origins,I

began

to develop

an

environmental

approach

tothe exhibition

soon

afterarrivingattheSmithsonianin1985.

Twenty-

^fiveyears ago,it

was

a difficultdecisiontoleaveYaleUniversity,

where

I

was

a

young

assistantprofessor,

working

in asettingwith great potential fordeveloping

my

researchcareer.

Eventu-

ally, I

saw

the

move

to the U.S. National

Museum

as a specialopportunity

not

onlytolead digs

and

expeditions butalso to

make

sure thatthe

profound

questions

of

hu-

man

origins

and

the scientificfinds that illuminate these questions

would

not

be

confinedtoauniversityclassroom.

My

^{transitiontothe}

Smithsonian meant an

opportunityto bringresearch discoveries

on human

evolutiontothewid- estpublic audience.

Itdidnot

happen

allatonce, though. Infact,it

took

nearly

20

years toassemblethe best

combination of

people.

John Gurche,

to

name

just

one

early

member of our

team,

isthe

foremost

artist-anatomist inthelifelikereconstruc- tion

of

early

human

species.

John

^is responsible for the astonishing reconstructions

of

the

heads and

statues

of

severalearly

human

species that arefeatured in theHall.

The 20

years also

gave me

timetoexplore

new

^scien-

tificavenues,

which

ultimately

shaped

the exhibition.After several years

of

digginginthe

Great

RiftValley

of

south- ern

Kenya,

atthestone

handaxe

site

of

Olorgesailie,Ireal- ized that

what

Ithought

we knew about

theancientsetting

of human

evolution

—

^long

^assumed

^to

^{have been}

^theAf-

rican

savanna

grassland

— ^{was by no means}

^asingle,con-

sistentenvironment.

The

geologicalclues indicated, instead, thattheclimatekeptchanging.

As

Idelvedintothe

environmental

sciences,the

more

Irealized thatratherthan

any one environment

ortrend, the continual shifting

of

the landscapes

where

earlyhu-

mans

livedcharacterizedtheperiod

of human

^evolution.

This

was

astory

worth

telling

— ^and

^a

^huge

^area

^of

^scien-

tificinvestigation that

had

notyet

been

presentedina

pub-

licexhibition.

By

2005,^it

became one of

the

museum's

toppriorities topresentthis

environmental theme

alongwiththe vast

number of

fossils

found

overthe previous

two

decades.

Byjanuary

2007,

our

exhibitioncore

team began

tomeet,

and

athree-yearperiodfordevelopingthe entireHall

was

placed

on

a fasttrack to

develop

allitsinteractivedisplays, the

many

objects forpeopletosee,

and

thestate-of-the-art reconstructions

of our

earlyancestors.

Page 14

Back

to

the Beginning

On

the

evening of March

17,the

Smithsonian hosted

a gala dinnerto

commemorate

the

opening of

the

Hall

of

Human

Origins

and our museum's

Centennial.

The

dinner

honored Mr. David Koch and

Dr. Peter

Buck,

the exhibition's

two

principalbenefactors.

Meave and

Richard

Leakey among

other notable scientists attended, as did

members of

Congress, the

Smithsonian

leadership, key

members of our

exhibitionteam,

and many

other fasci- nating people.

I

had dreamed of

thisexhibitoff

and on

for

25

years

and

then almost miraculouslyI

had

theopportunityto

work on

itnearlyeven*

day with

incredibly talented exhibitde- signers,writers,techexperts,educators,

and

fellow scien-

tists.I

had not thought much about

the final

day

actually arriving. Still, as thelong-awaited

day

unfolded, I could

not

help thinkthatit

was

passing

way

tooquickly!

In

many

conversationsthatevening,Ikept

mentioning

the exhibition tours

we were

to give in the

coming

^days,

the lectureseriesthat

would

startin acouple

of

weeks,

and

the

network of

educators

and

scientistseagertohelpbring the exhibition's ideas

and messages

to the

American and

international public.Gradually,it

dawned on me

that the

opening of

theHall

was not

the

end of

the road,

but

the start

of an ongoing endeavor of

greatresponsibility.

I

am

eagerto return to thefield

and

continue

our

digs in

Kenya,

China,

and

othercountries.

But now

thereis

more

toitthanthat.

Our Smithsonian team can

hardly waitfor new-discoveries

by

researchersall

over

the

world

thatwill

make

theupdatesto

our

exhibition,additions to

our new

website,

and our

educational eventsforthepublic exciting possibilitiesforthefuture.

As

withscienceitself,

where

each

new

significantdiscoveryleads to

new

ideas

and

explora- tions,I

now-

see that

our

efforts topresentthe science

of

human

origins to the publicwilllead to

new ways of mak-

ing the scienceasexciting

and

asrelevant toas

many

people aspossible.

The opening of

the exhibition has

become

inretrospect thesignal

of

aterrificbeginning. If thereis

any answer

the exhibition gives to thequestion

"What does

it

mean

^to

be human?'

itisthat"being

human'

hasbeen,inpart,amatter

Rick Potts in his Smithsonian office.

of 'becoming human' —

^a

^wondrous

^process

^{of change}

overtime,

an

ancestrythatconnectsallpeopleto

one

an- other

and our

species toevery

form of

life

on

planet Earth.

Every day

thishall

and

itsrichwebsitewillcontinuetohelp peopleexplore

and

learnaboutthis

amazing

scientificquest.

For

further

information about

the exhibit

and

the Smithsonian's

Human

Origins

Program,

consultits

com- panion

publication

and

website:

Potts,Richard

and

ChristopherSloan.2010.

What

DoesIt

Mean

tobe

Human'?

NationalGeographic.

Human

Origins Website:http://humanorigins.si.edu/

Rick PottsisDirector,

Human

OriginsProgram,

and

Curator,

"The

David H

^Koch

^Hall

of

Human

^Origins."