The Americans have Kennewick Man, the Chinese, Peking; the Indonesians, Java, but the Africans are most blessed as the indisputable cradle of mankind, with a breathtaking range of choices from the legendary Lucy and Ardi in Ethiopia, to the Black Skull of Kenya, Toumai in Chad and Twiggy from Tanzania. These are legendary fossil finds that have helped chart and change our understanding of human evolution over millions of years.
Guyana? Well, we only have Eve. She is from the distant Neolithic time line of human history, roughly 10 000 to 5500 years ago, before the Bronze Age. And she is entirely ours. A more than 7 200 year-old young woman, forever frozen in time, her full term baby fatally caught in the breech position. Laid to rest with Adam, probably and two others.
I can still remember the excitement that swept through our Guyana Chronicle newsroom, and then the entire country, decades ago, when word of the carbon dating confirmation came through, and we all tried desperately to understand the significance.
