People and their Ancestors featuring the original fossil skeletons Lucy & Selam

The new exhibition People and Their Ancestors at the National Museum invites you on a fascinating journey through the story of humankind. In addition to the evolution of humans, the exhibition explores how the lifestyles of modern people have changed over time — from their diet and way of life to their social structures and material culture. The exhibition features a wide range of unique finds from the Czech Republic as well as exceptional artifacts of European significance. For 60 days, you will also have the opportunity to see exhibits of global significance with your own eyes – original fossils of iconic human ancestors.
 

The first part of the exhibition is dedicated to the evolution of our species — the development of the human lineage. It presents nearly seven million years of hominin evolution through numerous casts of unique fossil discoveries. You’ll learn about our earliest ancestors who left the treetops to walk upright on land, including both famous and lesser-known australopithecines. View the first representatives of the genus Homo and the early “pioneers” who ventured out of Africa. The exhibition also highlights our lost relatives — Neanderthals and other groups from the last 200,000 years, such as the Denisovans or the "Hobbit" (Homo floresiensis). It reveals the beginnings of anatomically modern humans and their journey to populate the entire world. You’ll also discover how the human skeleton evolved and adapted to upright bipedal walking.

See Lucy & Selam With Your Own Eyes

Some of the most valuable and ancient paleoanthropological artifacts — the original fossils of iconic human ancestors Lucy and Selam — will be displayed in the opening hall. They will be on view from August 25 to October 23, 2025. For the first time in history, these two rare Australopithecus afarensis fossils, approximately 3.2 to 3.3 million years old, will be shown together in Europe. They have been loaned by the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa and are part of Ethiopia’s national cultural heritage.

Lucy
In Ethiopia, she is also known as Dinkinesh, meaning “You are wonderful’” in Amharic. She was discovered 50 years ago by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and his student Tom Gray in Hadar, Ethiopia — by chance, on their way back from another excavation. The find rewrote the history of human evolution. Lucy is considered a direct ancestor of the Homo genus. She lived in East Africa around 3.8–2.9 million years ago. Lucy stood about 106 cm tall, weighed 28 kg, had a small brain, and died in adolescence, between the ages of 12 and 16. Her upper skeleton resembles that of a chimpanzee, while her lower skeleton is similar to early Homo species. Her pelvis and legs show clear adaptations to upright, bipedal walking. Thanks to the remarkable preservation of her skeleton, researchers were able to reconstruct the appearance and lifestyle of Australopithecus afarensis in great detail for the first time. She was named after the Beatles’ song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Selam
Alongside Lucy will be the remains of 2.5-year-old Selam, whose name means “Peace” in Amharic. This well-preserved fossil of a small child — most likely a girl — was discovered in 2000 near Lucy’s find site. Over several years of research, more parts of her skull were gradually uncovered, allowing a partial reconstruction. With about 60 % of her skeleton preserved, Selam is one of the most complete child fossils of early hominins ever found. Her discovery offers valuable insight into how australopithecines developed from birth.

Together, Lucy and Selam are key pieces of evidence in understanding human evolution and underline Ethiopia’s role as the cradle of humankind.

The exhibition is further enriched by hyperrealistic reconstructions of selected hominins, including Lucy, created by French sculptor Élisabeth Daynès. Alongside the original fossils, Ethiopia has also loaned a hyperrealistic model of Selam to the National Museum.

From Mammoth Hunters to the First Farmers

In the next part of the exhibition, you’ll enter the world of prehistoric hunters and gatherers through remarkable archaeological finds. You can see, for example, a cast of a Neanderthal braincase from Gánovce (c. 105,000 BCE), or the remains of the oldest group of modern humans in Europe, discovered in the Koněprusy Cave — accompanied by a hyperrealistic model of their appearance. The exhibition offers the most comprehensive overview of Paleolithic finds from Bohemia, including the oldest artifacts from Přezletice (600,000–400,000 BCE). Also on display is a remarkable mammoth bone “midden” from Dolní Věstonice, along with artistic creations from late Stone Age hunters.

The transformative arrival of the first Neolithic farmers (mid-6th millennium BCE) is illustrated by discoveries from Bylany. You’ll see reconstructions of dwellings, delicate spondylus shell jewelry, rare Mediterranean figurines, and the earliest evidence of textile production. In the section on the Eneolithic period (5th–3rd millennium BCE), visitors can view the first copper tools and objects linked to early social elites, such as a richly equipped grave from Velvary. Also on display for the first time is an extraordinary find — the grave of the “Amazon of Tišice.”