NAIROBI, Kenya — A young boy who experts say died 1.6 million years ago is causing a modern-day spat between Christians in Kenya and a legendary archaeologist.
The squabble involves a fossilized skeleton known as Turkana Boy, an 8- or 9-year-old male whose bones were preserved in marshland near Kenya’s Lake Turkana. Experts say the 5-foot-3-inch skeleton comprises the most complete remains of a prehistoric human ever found. Curators at the National Museums of Kenya plan to highlight Turkana Boy as the jewel of their collection when the facility reopens in July following renovations.
But leaders of evangelical groups in Kenya have criticized the fossil display, saying its purported age confuses children and contradicts biblical Christianity. Bishop Boniface Adoyo, chairman of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, has threatened a boycott of the exhibit. Representatives from the alliance have also asked the museum to move the Turkana collection to a back room and post a notice saying evolution is simply one of many theories about the origins of modern life.
Richard Leakey, the famous paleoanthropologist who founded the museum’s prehistory department, led the team that discovered the bones in 1984. In a December 2006 interview with England’s Daily Telegraph, Leakey labeled such criticism "outrageous" and urged the museum to be "extremely strong in presenting a very forceful case" for evolution.
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