The first exhibition space you encounter at the museum is in the lobby with the central stairway – an exhibition in itself! The stairway is divided into two sections: the Stairway of Origin at the top and the Stairway of Evolution at the bottom.

The Stairway of Evolution - meet the family

On the Stairway of Evolution you can meet the human species we living human beings are descendants of. Seven lifelike figures keep an eye on you as you walk down the stairs. From the 3.2 million years-old Lucy found in Ethiopia to the Koelbjerg Man from the Stone age – the oldest skeleton found in Denmark.

The anatomically correct reconstructions were created in collaboration with the Centre for Biocultural History at Aarhus University and the world famous Kennis brothers from the Netherlands.

The Stairway of Origin – the stairway to the world

On the way up the stairs to the museum’s ethnographic exhibition area, you can meet three figures created from contemporary people from different cultures: Paul Gurrumuruwuy, an Aboriginal of the Yolngu people in Australia; Galina Ainatgual, a Chukchi from northern Kamchatka in Siberia; and Stephen Hawking, the internationally-renowned professor of physics from England.

Each of the three present their perspectives about where we come from and where we are heading – perspectives that naturally lead to the museum’s ethnographic exhibition.