Dmanisi

Dmanisi is a town and archaeological site in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia approximately 93 km southwest of the nation's capital Tbilisi in the river valley of Mashavera [1]. A series of skulls which had diverse physical traits, discovered at Dmanisi in the early 2000s, led to the hypothesis that many separate species in the genus Homo were in fact a single lineage [1]. The area around the town of Dmanisi has been settled since the Early Bronze Age [1]. Beyond a rich collection of ancient and medieval artifacts and the ruins of various buildings and structures, unique remains of prehistoric animals and humans have been unearthed [1]. The discovery of primitive stone tools in 1984 led to increasing interest to the archaeological site [1]. Early human fossils, originally named Homo georgicus and now considered Homo erectus georgicus, were found at Dmanisi between 1991 and 2005 [1]. At 1.8 million years old, they are now believed to be a subspecies of Homo erectus and not a separate species of Homo [1]. These fossils represent the earliest known human presence in the Caucasus [1].