"In the fall of 1971, Jon Kalb, a young geologist from Texas, was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to explore Ethiopia's forbidding Afar Depression, long considered a kind of hell on earth.". "Although it was geology that initially drew Kalb to the region, it was astounding archeological finds that became the reason to stay. The Afar yielded Lucy, the First Family, Bodo Man, the Aramis Skeleton, the Buri Skull, and some of the oldest and most extensive stone tool discoveries ever made.". "Kalb recounts not just the turf battles of scientists but the armed conflict that overthrew Emperor Haile Sellassie in 1974, and the subsequent revolution that steered Ethiopia toward famine, tribal warfare, invasion, and chaos."--BOOK JACKET.