ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia― One of the world's most famous fossils (化石)― the 3.2 million-year-old Lucy skeleton (骨骼) unearthed in Ethiopia in 1974 —will go on an exhibition tour abroad for the first time in the United States, officials said Tuesday. Even the Ethiopian public has only seen Lucy twice. The Lucy on exhibition at the Ethiopian National Museum in the capital, Addis Ababa, is a replica while the real remains are usually locked in a secret storeroom. A team from the Museum of National Service in to Houston, Texas, spent four years discussing with the Ethiopians for the U.S. Tour., which will start in Houston next September.
"Ethiopia's rich culture of both the past and today, is one of the best kept secrets in the world,"said Joel Bartsch, director of the Houston museum.
The six-year tour will also go to Washington, New York, Denver and Chicago. Officials said six other U.S. cities may be on the tour. But they said plans had not yet been worked out.
Traveling with Lucy will be 190 other fossils.
Lucy, her name taken from a Beatles song that played in a camp the night of her discovery, is part of the skeleton of what was once a 31/2-foot-tall ape-man (猿人).