Odyssey of humankind - development of humankind and material cultures of the Early Stone Age
Exhibition authors: Ivor Jankovic, Ivor Karavanic, Jacqueline Balen
Organizers:
- Archaeological Museum in Zagreb
- Institute of Anthropology in Zagreb
- Archaeological Department of the Philosophical Faculty of the Zagreb University
Exhibition is open from 15th December 2005 to 15th March 2006
The exhibition presents the evolution of humankind and its earliest material cultures. The exhibition presents a survey of biological evolution of humankind, from the first adjustments that separated us humans from our nearest cousins - apes, the development of bipedalism, through other evolutionary changes, to the emergence of the Homo sapiens sapiens species and its spread to all geographic regions of the world. The representation of biological changes is accompanied by a survey of archaeological material cultures of the period of the Early Stone Age, i.e. Palaeolithic. In this earliest period of humankind the biology and archaeology are inseparably linked and the understanding of one scientific branch necessarily includes the understanding of the achievements of the other.
The material includes casts of the most important palaeoanthropological finds from various periods of human development (from Australopithecines and other early hominids, through various species of genus Homo, to the anatomically modern man) and casts and original archaeological finds of various palaeolithic cultures. The illustrations of various reconstructions of archaeological and anthropological material, as well as pictorial representations accompanied by texts help to clarify the displayed material.