Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
National Geographic News has an interesting article on some digs just south of Ashville, North Carolina. If memory serves me correctly the archaeologist (Gerald Riggs) was a few years ahead of me at UTK. At any rate the story is pretty interesting...
"What we're finding in the ground is the stuff of everyday life—refuse, people's trash," Riggs said. "In terms of documenting the Trail, this confirms that these particular sites were associated with Cherokee families."The archaeologists have recovered pieces of pottery and china, buttons, glass, cast-iron cook pots, and other artifacts.
"These objects suggest that the lifestyle of the Cherokee on one hand was surprisingly modern and westernized but that they were still very distinctive and native," Riggs said.
There are other reasons for learning more about the relocation of the Cherokee, said Jane Eastman, an anthropology professor at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Eastman also is president of the North Carolina Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association."There's this idea that America is a place where this type of thing couldn't happen," Eastman said. "We think of ethnic cleansing as happening in the former Soviet bloc. It's important to understand that not only could it happen here, but it has happened here."
Fascinating stuff...Check it out.
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