Adventures in the Bone Trade Adventures in the Bone Trade The Race to Discover Human Ancestors in Ethiopia’s Afar Depression JON KALB COPERNICUS BOOKS An Imprint of Springer-Verlag © 2001 Jon E. Kalb All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published in the United States by Copernicus Books, an imprint of Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., a member of BertelsmannSpringer Science+Business Media GmbH. Copernicus Books 37 East 7th Street New York, NY 10003 www.copernicusbooks.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kalb, Jon E. Adventures in the bone trade: the race to discover human ancestors in Ethiopia’s Afar Depression/Jon E. Kalb. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-387-98742-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Fossil hominids—Ethiopia—Awash River Valley. 2. Human remains (Archaeology)—Ethiopia—Awash River Valley. 3. Paleoanthropology—Ethiopia—Awash River Valley. 4. Excavations (Archaeology)—Ethiopia—Awash River Valley. 5. Awash River Valley (Ethiopia)—Antiquities. I. Title. GN282 K35 2000 599.9Ј0963Ј3—dc21 00-030837 Manufactured in the United States of America. Printed on acid-free paper. 987654321 ISBN 0-387-98742-8 SPIN 10557407 FOR JUDY, JUSTINE, SPRING, AND SLESHI Preface n the last few hundred years Africa has witnessed the slave trade, the ivory I trade, the diamond trade, and the rubber trade. Each has represented a sepa- rate chapter of discovery and exploitation. Beginning in the 1920s, another type of “trade” burst onto the scene with the discovery of our oldest human ancestors: Fossil Man. Most notable was the headline-making Taung Child, Australopithecus africanus, found in South Africa in 1924. Then, beginning in the late 1950s, came the sensational discoveries in East Africa by Louis and Mary Leakey, Zinjanthro- pus and Homo habilis; and those by their son Richard Leakey, which, beginning in the 1960s, consisted of an unprecedented array of australopithecine and early Homo fossils. Each new discovery represented extraordinary wealth of informa- tion about our origins and instantly captured the public’s attention. Although trafficking in slaves and extracting minerals can hardly be equated with the pursuit of human origins, these diverse quests have followed a similar trajectory: exploration, discovery, territorial competition, exploitation, and personal gain or acclaim. In the early 1970s the search for early hominids (from the family Hominidae) shifted to the Afar Depression of Ethiopia, also known as the Danakil—one of the last major regions in eastern Africa to be scientifically explored. There the “bone trade” would reach its zenith amid the discovery of immense fossil- and artifact-bearing deposits, yielding Lucy, the First Family, Bodo Man, the Aramis skeleton, the Buri Skull, and some of the oldest and most extensive stone tool finds in Africa—what may prove to be the longest and most complete single record of hominid habitation known in the world. In the course of these events, intense competition developed among scientists and scientific teams, which resulted in treachery and bloodletting reminiscent of the exploration duels of the nineteenth century that involved such famous explorers as Richard Burton, John Speke, and Henry Stanley. I know about these things because I was a co-founder of the expedition that dis- covered Lucy and later led the first surveys to most of the sites in the Afar that have since produced fossil hominids. I was a participant in the “bone wars” that accompanied these discoveries, and I have firsthand knowledge of the cutthroat vii viii P REFACE competition and backstabbing that plague media-driven hominid hunts and the race for the oldest fossil or artifact. As a geologist I also know something of the extraordinary uniqueness of the Afar and of the reasons why it is both a geologi- cal marvel and one of the most punishing environments on earth. Having worked among the Afar nomads, I have come to understand their special relationship with their desert habitat and to identify with their life on the edge of survival. Finally, as a resident of Ethiopia with my family from 1971 to 1978, I experi- enced the political upheavals that rocked the country with the overthrow of Emperor Haile Sellassie in 1974 and the subsequent rule by a brutal tyrant, who steered the country on a course of revolution and “red terror” amid a succession of tribal wars, civil wars, and invasions. Jon Kalb Austin, Texas August 17, 2000 Acknowledgments t the conclusion of three decades of research that underlies the writing of A this book, it is hard to say who is most to blame. Would it be Dick Williams, the fellow graduate student who dropped that article about the Afar Triangle in my lap in 1970? Or my publisher who dared, 30 years later, to publish a book that mixed science adventurism with totalitarianism and human origins? In between the two were scores of others who helped, or hindered, me along the way, and all bear some responsibility for this work. First there is my wife Judy, who tolerated us, both the good guys and the bad guys, over the years. She also encouraged me to develop my skills in written English, as she has hundreds of school children over the years. I owe her so much for every step along the way. And our daughters, Justine and Spring, who were born at the beginning and middle of this story, respectively, yet grew up to be responsible citizens and are the delight of their parents. Then there is the rest of my family—my father BB, my mother, my brother Peter, and my sister Claire, who bore witness to my early years and who collectively believed that I would not live long enough to vote. Also, I am grateful to Ervin Kalb and to the matriarch of our family, Elva Kalb Dumas, who, at the age of 98, read and critiqued the entire final, unsanitized draft of this book. I pay special tribute to Sleshi Tebedge, to whom this book is partially dedicated, who was a pioneer for his country, and for his continent, and was my close friend. I thank other friends who have encouraged or helped me over the years—Kelati Abraham, Tsrha Adefris, Dejene Aneme, Mesfin Asnake, Robert Bell, Glen F. Brown, Karl Butzer, Doug Cramer, Eric Glitzenstein, Conrad Hersh Tewolde Berhan G. Igzi- abher, Clifford Jolly, Alfred Kelleher, Assefa Mebrate, Ted Morse, Herb Mosca, Liz Oswald, Dennis Peak, Paul Whitehead, and Craig Wood—and friends who offered assistance or inspiration—Glen Bailey, Dan Barton, Gloria Cook, Sutton Grant, Lynn Hughes, Ken and Jackie Jacobs, Bill and Mary Kaiser, Wann Langston, Ernie Lun- delius Jr., Linda and David Maraniss, Don Reid, Will Reid, Larry Schwab, Naim Sipra, Dwight Schmidt, and Turu Workineh Tebedge. ix x A CKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to those Ethiopian institutions that gave me their support, par- ticularly the Ministry of Mines, the Antiquities Administration and later the Min- istry of Culture, Addis Ababa University, the Commission for Science and Tech- nology, and the Commission for Higher Education. Among those officials who were particularly helpful were Duncan Dow, Mahdi Shumburo, Shiferaw Demissie, Bekele Negussie, Soloman Tekalign, Aklilu Habte, Haile Wolde Michael, Haile Lul Tebecke, Yayehyirad Kitaw, Mamo Tessema, Daniel Tuafe, Wolde Senbet Abomsa, and, of course, Alemayehu Asfaw, who made more discoveries than all the rest of us put together. My family and I are grateful for the assistance and friendship of many at the U.S. Embassy over the years. Richard Matheron stands out; with the assistance of Glen Brown at the U.S. Geological Survey, he helped me get much of my data out of the country. Likewise, my family and I are grateful for our friends at the British and Canadian Embassies, and those, foreign and Ethiopian, who shared so many experiences with us during both pleasant and dangerous times. I thank my former colleagues with the International Afar Research Expedition, and the Rift Valley Research Mission in Ethiopia, all of whom are referred to by name in the pages that follow. I also thank Fred Simon and Mike Foose with the U.S. Geological Survey. For special assistance in this country I owe much to the Vertebrate Palaeontol- ogy Laboratory with the Texas Memorial Museum of the University of Texas at Austin, which has provided me with a research base over the years. For legal and technical support, I am grateful to Public Citizen, Meyer & Glitzenstein, and Graybill & English, all of Washington D.C., and also to The Authors Guild of New York, Austin Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts, and the Austin Writers League. Those individuals who kindly gave me support or valuable information include Bill Adler, Sally Baker, Daniel Barker, Robert Bell, Ray Bernor, Claud Bramblett, Lana Castle, Bill Cayce, H. B. S. Cooke, Tom Doyal, Jack Edwards, Veronica Ever- ing, Mulugetta Fissaha, Tafara Ghedamu, Mike Hamilburg, Charlie Harrell, Clif- ford Jolly, John Kappelman, Edward Kimball, Ernest Lundelius, Jr., Vincent Maglio, N. O. Nelson, Workineh Wolde Rufael, Heather Page, Jean-Pierre Slak- mon, Angela Smith, Louise Sperling, Turu Workineh Tebedge, Wonde Wossen Tebedge, John Van Couvering, and Carolyn Wylie. For valuable technical assistance with the research, editing, or preparation of the book I thank Becky Ballou, Mary Ann Brickner, Sandra Bybee, Roxanne Bugucka, Connie Day, Jennifer Haas, Judy Hogan, Leah Linney, Valeria Liverini, Ran Moran, Susan Murphy, Gianluca Paganoni, Pierre Rico, Rebecca Sankey, and, with special gratitude for years of assistance, Sharon Robinson. Credit for the maps goes to Jana Robinson and Maria Saenz.