Natural History Museum Opens Pre-human Hall

Vienna. The Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum) opened updated anthropology halls entitled Becoming Human(s) on 29 January, after 15 years of being closed. Leading with the introduction of Lucy and Kupan, two life-size wax figures of australopithecines (a new pre-homo species, discovered in South Africa), the focus of the exhibit is on modern man and his maturation from primate to the Neolithic period.

The figures were constructed by Parisian model-builder Elisabeth Daynes and are housed with various replicas of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens along with a selection of fossils previously not open to the public. According to Maria Teschler-Nicola, head of the museum’s Department of Anthropology, they “have tried to put together the absolute top finds of recent times.”

Major highlights include the twins uncovered in Wachtberg in Krems, dating back from 28,000 years ago, and a hands-on CSI table where visitors can examine the age, gender and species of a virtual skeleton with professional scientific instruments. viennareview.net

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