After a well-deserved but brief night's rest, the day began with an early morning run through the cool, damp streets of the city. We've found that these early morning jaunts are the best way to see an unfamiliar place as we can wake up and cover more ground, discovering what is typically missed when walking or driving. Our run took us past the African Union Building, the Royal Palace, and the new Science Museum. 

By mid-morning, the team assembled for our first official academic adventure: a visit to the world famous National Museum of Ethiopia where experts preserve and study some of the oldest and most important fossils, both of the hominid lineage and of a diverse array of non-human animals. We were honored to meet with CARTA members Yonas Beyene (Director of the Konso Paleoanthropological Research project and project archaeologist for the Middle Awash and Chorora Paleoanthropological projects), Berhane Asfaw (former Director of the National Museum of Ethiopia, Member of the Center for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Ethiopia, Manager of the Rift Valley Research Service, and Co-Director of the Middle Awash Research Project), and Seminew Asrat (a geochemist and paleoecologist with a PhD from Sapienza University, Rome, Italy) who generously spent hours with us at the museum, including a visit to the casting lab where precision casts of important specimens are produced. They provided the students with important geological, historical, and technical background on Ethiopian paleoanthropology and then treated us with the phenomenally rare opportunity to see the real Ardi (Ardipithecus radius) and Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) fossils. Later, we explored the vast fossil repository filled with non-human animal specimens, which provided essential context for understanding the ecology in which Ardi and Lucy lived. This repository also contained countless important stone tools that date back millions of years of human evolution. Finally, the team was greeted by CARTA member, Yohannes Haile-Selassie (Director of the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University), who was at the Museum conducting his summer research.