Ivory Coast officially opened a new extension to its premier archaeological museum on Monday.
This expansion comes after significant Stone Age relics were unearthed during dam construction in the country’s south.
Paleolithic and Neolithic artifacts surfaced during the building of a hydraulic dam in the **Ahouati region**.
This unexpected discovery prompted the decision to create an annexe for the main museum, located in the economic hub of Abidjan.
Culture Minister Francoise Remarck called this development a “historic opportunity” born from an environmental constraint.
The new annexe in Ahouati sits strategically between Abidjan and the political capital, Yamoussoukro.
According to Health Minister Pierre Dimba, the broader ambition is for Ivory Coast to become a “pioneering nation in terms of preservation and archaeological research.”
The newly inaugurated wing proudly displays the first treasures of Ivorian archaeology, including metallurgical tools and bones.
These items were previously “kept in a scattered and sometimes precarious manner,” Remarck noted.
Remarkably, new research suggests *Homo sapiens* inhabited African tropical forests much earlier than previously thought.
While it was believed humans colonized these environments only 70,000 years ago, findings from Anyama, north of Abidjan, indicate human presence there 150 millennia ago.
This groundbreaking study involved researchers from Ivory Coast and several other nations, including retired Ivorian archaeologist Francois Guede Yiode, considered the country’s sole qualified prehistory specialist.
A young doctoral student in archaeology, Desire Dangi Kouame Kra, expressed his relief, stating, “At last we have an appropriate place to display these finds which were kept in university laboratories.”
This new facility promises to be a pivotal center for understanding early human history in the region.
