The Olduvai Gorge Museum is located in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Northern Tanzania on the edge the of Olduvai Gorge. The Museum was Founded by Mary Leakey and is now under the jurisdiction of the Tanzanian Government's Department of Cultural Antiquities. It is a Museum dedicated to the appreciation and understanding of the Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli fossil sites. Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... View of the Ngorongoro Crater The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a conservation area situated 180 km west of Arusha, Tanzania. ... Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... Mary Leakey (February 6, 1913 – December 9, 1996) was a British physical anthropologist, who, along with others, discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island. ... Antiquity means different things: Generally it means ancient history, and may be used of any period before the Middle Ages. ... The National Gallery in London, a famous museum. ... Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... The Lower Paleolithic site of Laetoli in Tanzania is famous for its human footprints, preserved in volcanic ash (Site G). ...

Olduvai Gorge Museum, February 2006

Olduvai Gorge Museum Interior, February 2006

Olduvai Gorge Museum Staff, February 2006

History

The Olduvai Gorge Museum was founded by Mary Leakey in the late 1970's. The museum was originally designed to house paleoanthropological artifacts from the surrounding area. The Olduvai Gorge Museum was later after her death put under control of the Tanzanian Government's Department of Cultural Antiquities. During the Mid 1990's The J. Paul Getty Museum's Department of Conservation renovated and added to the museum. This included a new wing with exhibitions that were designed by the J. Paul Getty Museum. Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... Mary Leakey (February 6, 1913 – December 9, 1996) was a British physical anthropologist, who, along with others, discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island. ... An artifact (also artefact) is a term coined by Sir Julian Huxley meaning any object or process resulting from human activity. ... Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... View of a building at the Getty Center, from the Central Garden. ... View of a building at the Getty Center, from the Central Garden. ...

location

The Olduvai Gorge Museum is located in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Northern Tanzania on the edge the of Olduvai Gorge; directly where the Gorge split into two. It is approximately 5-km from the main road to the Serengeti plains north west of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... View of the Ngorongoro Crater The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a conservation area situated 180 km west of Arusha, Tanzania. ... Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... Serengeti is a region of grasslands and woodlands in Africa shared between the countries of Tanzania in the south and Kenya in the north. ... View of the Ngorongoro Crater The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a conservation area situated 180 km west of Arusha, Tanzania. ...

Exhibitions

The exhibits at the Olduvai Gorge Museum are centered around the paleoanthropological research and artifacts that have come from the surrounding area. There is one hall dedicated to the Leakey family and there pursuit of working at Olduvai Gorge. This hall has historical artifacts from the Olduvai Gorge area as well as charts and maps explaining the process of fossil excavation. Many of the artifacts are original but some are casts (specifically the hominid skulls). The adjacent hall is dedicated solely to the Laetoli fossilized footprints. A cast that was made of part of the footprint trail in 1996 by the J. Paul Getty Museum is on display. Accompanying this are several charts and photographs describing and illustrating the process of the Laetoli Footprints creation. There is also a large illustration depicting three Australopithecus afarensis walking through the area 3.6 million years ago. In addition to these indoor museum exhibits there are also two outdoor lecture areas. These are utilized for an orientation presentation given by museum staff. These lectures are given before entering the main museum halls. Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... An artifact (also artefact) is a term coined by Sir Julian Huxley meaning any object or process resulting from human activity. ... Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... A fossil Ammonite Fossils (from Latin fossus, literally having been dug up) are the mineralized or otherwise preserved remains or traces (such as footprints) of animals, plants, and other organisms. ... Genera Subfamily Ponginae Pongo - Orangutans Gigantopithecus (extinct) Sivapithecus (extinct) Lufengpithecus (extinct) Ankarapithecus (extinct) Subfamily Homininae Gorilla - Gorillas Pan - Chimpanzees Homo - Humans Dryopithecus (extinct) Ouranopithecus (extinct) Paranthropus (extinct) Australopithecus (extinct) Sahelanthropus (extinct) Orrorin (extinct) Ardipithecus (extinct) Kenyanthropus (extinct) Pierolapithecus (extinct) (tentative) The hominids are the members of the biological family Hominidae... The Lower Paleolithic site of Laetoli in Tanzania is famous for its human footprints, preserved in volcanic ash (Site G). ... As I See It, J. Paul Getty Autobiography Jean Paul Getty (December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American industrialist and founder of the Getty Oil Company. ... The Lower Paleolithic site of Laetoli in Tanzania is famous for its human footprints, preserved in volcanic ash (Site G). ... Binomial name †Australopithecus afarensis Johanson & White, 1978 Australopithecus afarensis is a hominid which lived between 3. ... A lecture on linear algebra at the Helsinki University of Technology A lecture is a presentation on a particular subject given in order to teach people about that subject, for example by a university or college teacher. ...

Staff

The Olduvai Gorge Museum staff consists of roughly 12 people. The museum has two curators Mr. Godfrey Olle Moita Maasai (on site) and Donatius Kamamba (off site Tanzanian Department of Cultural Antiquities). The staff mainly consists of people from the local Maasai tribe. The staff is housed in what was once the Leakey's camp. Some members of the staff have been there since the museum opened and plan to continue working at the museum for as long as possible. They consider themselves the caretakers of Olduvai Gorge. Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... A Maasai tribesman The Maasai are an indigenous African tribe of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania, are probably one of the most familiar tribes of East Africa. ... Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ...

Visitors

There are roughly 150 visitors a day during the peak season in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. During the rainy season (March-August) the attendance can fall to 0 visitors a day. Visitors typically come from the closest city (Arusha) by safari vehicle. They commonly come for lunch and then depart to continue their safari in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. According to the staff at the Olduvai Gorge Museum visitors have come from all continents and represent most countries. View of the Ngorongoro Crater The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a conservation area situated 180 km west of Arusha, Tanzania. ... Arusha Clocktower Arusha with a view of Mount Meru Arusha is the capital of the Arusha Region, located in the north of Tanzania. ... A safari is a hunting journey. ... A safari is a hunting journey. ... View of the Ngorongoro Crater The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a conservation area situated 180 km west of Arusha, Tanzania. ... Olduvai Gorge from space Topography of Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. ... Dymaxion map by Buckminster Fuller shows land mass with minimal distortion as only one continuous continent A continent (Latin continere, to hold together) is a large continuous mass of land on the planet Earth. ... This article describes a type of political entity. ...

Further reading

B.Sc Pickering Ph.D, Ngorongoro’s Geological History (edited by NCAA, 1993).

Maasai People, The History and some Traditions of the Maasai (National Museum of Tanzania, Village Museum, Peramiho Printing press 2004).

L.S.B. Leakey, Adams Ancestors, The Evolution of Man and His Culture (Harper & Row Publishers 1960).

L.S.B. Leakey, By the Evidence, Memoirs 1932-1951 (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1974).

Richard E. Leakey & Roger Lewin, ORIGINS (E.P. Dutton 1977) ISBN 0-525-17194-0.

External links

• - The Leakey Website
• - The Leakey Foundation
• - ASU Becoming Human
• – Ngorongoro Cradle of Life