Dmanisi: the earliest well-dated humans in Eurasia

Date

c. 1.8 million years ago

Category

Exploration & colonisation

Region

Caucasus (Georgia)

Era

Prehistory

Significance

At Dmanisi in southern Georgia, excavations led by David Lordkipanidze uncovered a remarkable assemblage of early human fossils — including five well-preserved skulls — alongside simple Oldowan-style stone tools and animal bones, securely dated to between about 1.85 and 1.77 million years ago.

These are the earliest well-dated hominin remains outside Africa and the best record of early Homo from any single site of such antiquity. The Dmanisi people were small-bodied and small-brained (brain volumes around 600–775 cc), with primitive limb proportions, showing that humans dispersed into the cooler latitudes of Eurasia while still anatomically archaic and equipped only with basic technology — not, as once assumed, only after acquiring large brains and Acheulean handaxes. The extraordinary anatomical variation among the five individuals has driven a major debate: some researchers see a single, highly variable population of Homo erectus, while others argue the bones may represent more than one species. Dmanisi anchors the chronology of the first human expansion into Europe and Asia.

Related exploration & colonisation events

• Pre-Clovis America: Monte Verde and the Pacific coastal route
  c. 16,000–14,500 years ago
• Settlement of Sahul: human occupation of Australia at Madjedbebe
  c. 65,000 years ago
• White Sands footprints: humans in the Americas during the Last Glacial Maximum
  c. 23,000–21,000 years ago
• Earliest human occupation of the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau
  c. 40,000 – 30,000 years ago
• Earliest humans reach Asia: stone tools at Shangchen, China
  c. 2.1 million years ago
• Early settlement of Japan and obsidian seafaring to Kozushima
  c. 38,000 years ago

Also relevant

• Homo erectus across Asia: 'Java Man' and 'Peking Man'
  c. 1.5 million – 300,000 years ago
• Misliya jaw: an early Homo sapiens beyond Africa
  c. 194,000–177,000 years ago
• Modern humans enter Europe and the Aurignacian begins
  c. 45,000 years ago

Further reading

The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction

The wider story

The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction

Amanda H. Podany

Concise, expert intro to Mesopotamia, Persia and the Near East before Alexander.

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