# Hadar **Domain:** Human Origins / Ethiopia / Paleontology **Doc Type:** Canonical Site Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Hadar** is a paleoanthropological research area in Ethiopia's Afar region known for fossils of _Australopithecus afarensis_, including AL 288-1, “Lucy.” ## Nexus Context The site joins geological context, comparative anatomy and dating methods in the reconstruction of early hominin life. [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] connects Hadar to Bay Area institutions through public human-origins funding and interpretation. That institutional connection must remain evidence-bounded. Johanson's grant chronology identifies National Science Foundation support for lower Awash research in 1973–1974 and places his first listed L.S.B. Leakey Foundation award in 1975, for continued Afar research. Later Leakey support helped sustain the Hadar program, but the currently cited record does not demonstrate that it financed the 1974 field season or the precise recovery of AL 288-1. The 1978 _Australopithecus afarensis_ description thanks several institutions for support across Hadar and Laetoli fieldwork. That aggregate acknowledgement establishes participation in the larger research program, not specimen-level provenance for Lucy. ## Continuity Context Hadar is a canonical example of identity recovered from fragments. AL 288-1 denotes one organism's partial skeleton, while species and lineage claims arise through comparison. Neither type of reconstruction restores the organism's consciousness. ## Sources / Provenance - Smithsonian Human Origins Program, AL 288-1: https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/fossils/al-288-1 - Donald C. Johanson curriculum vitae, Arizona State University: https://search.asu.edu/profile/50790/cv - Leakey Foundation, “Lucy, the iconic ancestor”: https://leakeyfoundation.org/lucy-the-iconic-ancestor/ - Johanson, White and Coppens, “A new species of the genus Australopithecus,” 1978: https://afanporsaber.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/A-new-species-of-the-genus-Australopithecus-primates-Hominidae-from-the-Pliocene-of-eastern-Africa.pdf ## See Also [[wiki/Donald Johanson|Donald Johanson]], [[wiki/Australopithecus afarensis|Australopithecus afarensis]], [[wiki/Lucy (2014)|Lucy]], [[wiki/Fossil Record|Fossil Record]], [[wiki/Scientific Patronage|Scientific Patronage]], [[wiki/Provenance|Provenance]]