Definition:
Dmanisi is the name of a very old archaeological site located in the Caucausus of the Republic of Georgia, about 85 kilometers southwest of the modern town of Tbilisi, beneath a medieval castle near the junction of the Masavera and Pinezaouri rivers.
Four hominid fossils, thousands of extinct animal bones and bone fragments, and over 1000 stone tools were found buried in 2-4.5 meters of alluvium. The stratigraphy of the site indicates that the hominid and vertebrate remains, and the stone tools, were laid into the cave by geological, rather than cultural causes.
Dating Dmanisi
The pleistocene layers have been securely dated between 1.0-1.8 million years ago; the types of animals discovered within the cave support the early part of that range. Two nearly complete hominid skulls were found, and they most likely represent early Homo ergaster/Homo erectus. They appear to be most like African H. erectus, as in Koobi Fora or West Turkana, although some debate exists. In 2008, the lowest levels were redated to 1.8 mya, and upper levels to 1.07 mya.
The stone artifacts are suggestive of Oldowan chopping tool tradition, similar to tools from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania; and similar to Ubeidiya, Israel. Dmanisi has implications for the original peopling of Europe and Asia by H. erectus, in that the path from Africa to the rest of the world may be postulated via a "Levantine corridor".
Sources
Calvo-Rathert, M., et al. 2008 New paleomagnetic data from the hominin bearing Dmanisinext term paleo-anthropologic site (southern Georgia, Caucasus). Quaternary Research 69(1):91-96.
Gabunia, Leo, Abesalom Vekua, and David Lordikpanidze. 2000. The environmental contexts of early human occupation of Georgia (Transcaucasia). Journal of Human Evolution 38:785–802
Gabunia, Leo, et al. 2001 Dmanisi and dispersal. Evolutionary Anthropology 10:158-170.
