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The Museum

Built in 2003 by the Oromia Culture and Tourism Commission, the Museum of Melka Kunture is now a reality, thanks to a Culture 2000 Project co-financed by the European Commission and realised by the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, the Institute of Prehistory and Quaternary Geology (University of Bordeaux 1), the Center of Geotechnology (University of Siena), the International Institute from Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (the Netherlands) and the Department of Geology and Geophysics (Addis Abeba University) and also thanks to the collaboration of the Authority for Research and Conservation of the Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture and Tourism) and the National Museum of Addis Abeba.

The Museum consists of four buildings dedicated to the African prehistory, to Geology and Volcanology, to Paleoanthropology and to the Prehistory of Melka Kunture and by the so called Open Air Museum presenting the excavation of two Acheulean sites dated to 0.8 Myr.

For Scientists

Melka Kunture is represented by several tens of localities of prehistoric and geological significance still showing evidence of the past volcanic activity.
Sites have been divided in three main categories:
1: geological sites;
2: surveyed sites (including all sites located at the surface but not excavated);
3: main archaeological sites (sites systematically excavated).

This part of the Web Site presents more detailed information which could especially interest researchers and specialists.
Visitors will be able to have a more precise information about the location of the different sites and their relation with the landscape topography.
They will also have the possibility to navigate through the different Palaeolithic sites in order to obtain information on the extension and organization of their paleoesurfaces and on the nature and consistence of their lithic and paleontological material.

Melka Kunture

Melka Kunture lies in the upper Awash valley, 50 km south of Addis Abeba. The site, discovered by Gerard Dekker in 1963, was surveyed by Gérard Bailloud in 1964, explored by a French mission, and since 1999 by an Italian mission
Read more ...>

History of Research

An overview of the research activities of the French Mission, the Italian Mission and the team members during the years on all kind of activities (including the production of this virtual museum).

Culture 2000

The realization of this Website is one of the main objectives of the Culture 2000 project “From the Past to the Present in Ethiopian Prehistory. An Interactive Museum for the Archaeological Park of the Early Palaeolithic site of Melka Kunture”. Read more ...>

European Cummunity Culture 2000

Università di Roma "La Sapienza"

Centro di Geotecnologie

Université de Bordeaux

International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation

Addis Ababa University

© 2007, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Archeologiche e Antropologiche dell’Antichità. Università di Roma “La Sapienza”.