In a quiet corner of the Republic of Georgia, hidden beneath medieval and Bronze Age ruins, the hominin fossil jackpot of Dmanisi is rewriting the story of human evolution. All photos credit: G. Tarlach Pop quiz, hotshot: what are the most significant fossil sites for piecing together the story of human evolution? Your list probably included Tanzania's early hominin-rich Olduvai Gorge and Hadar, Lucy's hometown in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Maybe you thought of the Rising Star cave system, which hogged hominin headlines last year with the announcement of the Homo naledi finds within. Or you went old school, naming Trinil, where a young Dutchman uncovered Java Man, aka Homo erectus, more than a century ago. Was Dmanisi on your list? It should have been, arguably near the top. The sheer age of the multiple hominin fossils from Dmanisi — about 1.8 million years old — has already challenged the conventional timeline for when the first members of our genus left Africa. And there is much more to discover. Situated on a promontory overlooking the confluence of two rivers in a bucolic corner of the Republic of Georgia, Dmanisi is one of the world's richest and most intriguing fossil sites for hominins. Yet it remains largely under the radar outside academic circles. That's a shame, because what researchers have uncovered there over the past 25 years rivals other, more famous sites.
Angry Dmanisi hominin (reconstruction of Skull 5 at the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi) wants some respect.
