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Abstract

Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction Project, led from Cologne University. These, and many other international scientific projects in Ethiopia, owe Mohammed a debt of gratitude: he was an essential and indefatigable colleague, making use of his wide-ranging network of friends to smooth the path of fieldwork and conferences, working with Ethiopian, French, American, German and British partners with tireless energy, great good-humor, and boundless enthusiasm. Personally, I owe much to Mohammed for 18 years of fruitful collaboration and close friendship, during which we shared many memorable times-coring Rift valley lakes, surveying Lake Tana, exploring Mechara caves, and fieldwork on horseback in the mountains of southwestern Ethiopia. Without his skills and enterprise, the work would have been almost impossible, and certainly far less enjoyable. He was a marvelous raconteur, with an in