Scan Magazine

By Signe Hansen | Photos: The Swedish Museum of Natural History

With photographs, reconstructions, and skeletons, the 400m2 exhibition in Stockholm follows human development through the past seven million years. “What we wanted to show was human evolution in the context of environmental and climate change. Partly because it is an interesting story in its own right, but also to understand current changes to the environment,” says Lars Werdelin who is the project’s scientist and has a Ph.D. in palaeontology.

Another goal of the exhibition is to challenge a common Eurocentric view of history and human development. “According to this belief, since Homo sapiens is the ‘pinnacle of evolution’, it must have evolved in Europe. But that is not true,” says Werdelin.

The exhibition demonstrates this by showing that not only are the earliest human origins in Africa but also the earliest ancestors of our species. ”We wanted to point out that under the skin we are all Africans, even we pale Scandinavians,” Werdelin says.

Reconstructing evolution

Ten of the sculptures in the exhibition are replicas of early human species, which, with latex skin and unique attention to detail, look very alive. They can only be made by a handful of people and were partly what inspired the museum’s staff to make an entirely new exhibition instead of updating the previous one. ”When we went to Paris to see Elisabeth Daynès’ [the artist who made the reconstructions] sculptures, we found it impossible to buy just a couple and decided instead to tear down all the old and a set up a new exhibition,” Werdelin says. After this decision, the team went back and bought ten of the sculptures, each worth a five digit sum in Euros.

Taking the kids along

The collection of reconstructions is one of the world’s largest and has been very popular with both children and adults. “We have done a lot to make the exhibition accessible for all age groups, and we see many families here,” says the manager of the project Christina Ritzl. “But in contrast to some of our other exhibitions where many adults come mostly because they want their kids to see it, our experience is that for this the adults come because they want to.”

Among the special attractions for kids are a dwarf elephant replica, which the kids can sit on, and horses which they can feed with leaves. But some of the initiatives taken to make the exhibition accessible for visually impaired people have also fascinated the kids. ”The main thing is that they can touch and feel a lot of the things like replicas of skulls that the kids find very interesting.”

The tour through the museum is accompanied by text in English and Swedish and/or audio guide, making it worth a visit for everybody who fancies a weekend in Stockholm and a journey to their African roots in one.

Other exhibitions at Swedish Museum of Natural History:

4½ billion years – The history of Earth and Life

Diversity of life

Marvels of the human body

Mission: Climate Earth

Polar Regions

Swedish nature

Treasures from the earth’s interior

For more information visit www.nrm.se