Ethiopia is one of the oldest archaeological sites in the world. The fossils of Australopithecus Afarensis (homo sapiens species) were discovered in Hadar Afar region in 1974. The exact origin is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and is located some 160km from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. The skulls and bones belonged to a 24 year old female Lucy/Dinkinesh (translated in Amharic as you are astounding) that lived here some 3 million years ago.

To stress the archaeological importance of Ethiopia was the discovery of another series of fossils in Awash in 1992 of Ardipithecus Ramidus thought to ne 4 million years old and also the discovery of Australopithecus Garhi, a fossil dating some 2 million years ago by a team of Ethiopian anthropologists like Berhane Asfaw in middle Asfaw. Garhi is believed to be a descendant of Afarensis from the earlier discoveries. Also among the discovered fossils are bones of antelopes and horses that were found 278m from the same site where Garhi’s skull was discovered.

Top Archaeological sites in Ethiopia :

• Middle Awash is the top archaeological site located near Awash river in central Ethiopia’s Afar Region.
• National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa is the home of Lucy, the famous skull that was first discovered in Ethiopia.
• Melka Kunture is another important city for discoveries in Ethiopia found south if the capital Addis Ababa. There were many stone tools that were discovered in Melka Kunture since 1960s.
• Omo Kibish is another scene from Ethiopia Archaeological discoveries. The Omo River is a tributary of Gibe River and other small river Nile tributaries such as Wabi, Mago and Gojeb in southern Ethiopia.