Dmanisi ( ka, დმანისი, tr, , az, Başkeçid) is a
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an o ...
and
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
in the
Kvemo Kartli
Kvemo Kartli ( ka, ქვემო ქართლი, az, Aşağı Kartli) or "Lower Kartli", is a historic province and current administrative region ( mkhare) in southeastern Georgia. The city of Rustavi is the regional capital.
Location
K ...
region of
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
approximately 93 km southwest of the nation’s capital
Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...
in the river valley of
Mashavera. The hominin site is dated to 1.8
million years ago
The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds.
Usage
Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago ...
.
[1.85-1.78 Ma 95% CI. ][Garcia, T., Féraud, G., Falguères, C., de Lumley, H., Perrenoud, C., & Lordkipanidze, D. (2010). "Earliest human remains in Eurasia: New 40Ar/39Ar dating of the Dmanisi hominid-bearing levels, Georgia". Quaternary Geochronology, 5(4), 443–451. doi:10.1016/j.quageo.2009.09.012] It was the earliest known evidence of hominins outside Africa before stone tools dated to 2.1 million years were discovered in 2018 in
Shangchen, China.
A
series of skulls which had diverse physical traits, discovered at Dmanisi in the early 2010s, led to the hypothesis that many separate species in the genus ''Homo'' were in fact a single lineage. Also known as Skull 5,
D4500 is the fifth skull to be discovered in Dmanisi.
History
The area around the town of Dmanisi has been settled since the
Early Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
. In the 6th century an
Orthodox Christian cathedral named "
Dmanisi Sioni" was built there. The oldest written record of the town is in the 9th century as a possession of the
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
emirate of Tbilisi. Located on the confluence of trading routes and cultural influences, Dmanisi was particularly important, growing into a major commercial center of medieval Georgia. The town was taken by the
Seljuk Turks
The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes
by the Turk ...
in the 1080s and by the Georgian kings
David the Builder
David IV, also known as David the Builder ( ka, დავით აღმაშენებელი, ') (1073–1125), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the 5th king of United Georgia from 1089 until his death in 1125.
Popularly considered to b ...
and
Demetrios I between 1123 and 1125. The
Turco-Mongol
The Turco-Mongol or Turko-Mongol tradition was an ethnocultural synthesis that arose in Asia during the 14th century, among the ruling elites of the Golden Horde and the Chagatai Khanate. The ruling Mongol elites of these Khanates eventuall ...
armies under
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...
laid waste to the town in the 14th century. Sacked again by the
Turkomans in 1486, Dmanisi never recovered and declined to a scarcely inhabited village by the 18th century. The castle was controlled by the
House of Orbeliani
The House of Orbeliani ( ka, ორბელიანი) was a Georgian noble family (tavadi), which branched off the House of Baratashvili in the 17th century and later produced several lines variously called Orbeliani, Orbelishvili (ორბ ...
.
Archaeological site
Extensive archaeological studies began in the area in 1936 and continued in the 1960s. 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. Some of the animal bones were identified by the Georgian paleontologist A. Vekua with the teeth of the extinct rhino ''
Dicerorhinus etruscus etruscus'' in 1983.
This species dates back presumably to the early
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
epoch. The discovery of primitive stone tools in 1984 led to increasing interest to the archaeological site. In 1991, a team of Georgian scholars was joined by the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
archaeologists from
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, and later the
U.S.,
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
researchers.
''Homo erectus georgicus''
Early human (or
hominin
The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas).
The ...
) fossils, originally named ''Homo georgicus'' and now considered ''Homo erectus georgicus'', were found at Dmanisi between 1991 and 2005. At 1.8 million years old, they are now believed to be a subspecies of ''
Homo erectus
''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor ...
'' and not a separate species of ''
Homo
''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus '' Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' ( modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely rela ...
''. These fossils represent the earliest known human presence in the Caucasus.
Subsequently, four fossil skeletons were found, showing a species primitive in its skull and upper body but with relatively advanced spines and lower limbs. They are now thought to represent a stage soon after the transition from ''
Australopithecus
''Australopithecus'' (, ; ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genus ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans) emerged within ''Australopithecus'', as sister to e.g. ''Australo ...
'' to ''Homo erectus''.
Human habitation in the Caucasus goes back to the remotest antiquity. The hominin remains discovered in 1991 by
David Lordkipanidze
David Otaris dze Lordkipanidze ( Georgian: დავით ლორთქიფანიძე) (born 5 August 1964, in Tbilisi) is a Georgian anthropologist and archaeologist, Professor (2004), Dr.Sc. (2002), Corresponding Member of the Georgi ...
at Dmanisi,
Kvemo Kartli
Kvemo Kartli ( ka, ქვემო ქართლი, az, Aşağı Kartli) or "Lower Kartli", is a historic province and current administrative region ( mkhare) in southeastern Georgia. The city of Rustavi is the regional capital.
Location
K ...
(1.8 million years old) are the oldest found outside Africa.
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an Extinction, extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ag ...
remains have been found at Ortvale K’lde (1973) and elsewhere in the Caucasus (36,000–50,000 years old).
The Dmanisi hominin remains are still making an impact on the paleontological community. the
Dmanisi skull 5 is in the middle of the controversy: many hominin fossils formerly thought to be different species may not have been separate species at all. Several early members of the genus Homo were possibly one evolving
lineage
Lineage may refer to:
Science
* Lineage (anthropology), a group that can demonstrate its common descent from an apical ancestor or a direct line of descent from an ancestor
* Lineage (evolution), a temporal sequence of individuals, populat ...
.
Skull suggests three early human species were one: Nature News & Comment
/ref>
Gallery
File:National Food Agency in Dmanisi, Georgia.jpg, National Food Agency in Dmanisi
File:Dmanisi Pentecostal Church 2022.jpg, Dmanisi Pentecostal Church
File:Dmanisi Hospital.jpg, Dmanisi Hospital
See also
* Prehistoric Georgia
*Human evolution
Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of '' Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual developmen ...
*List of human evolution fossils
The following tables give an overview of notable finds of hominin fossils and remains relating to human evolution, beginning with the formation of the tribe Hominini (the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages) in the late Miocene, roug ...
*Kvemo Kartli
Kvemo Kartli ( ka, ქვემო ქართლი, az, Aşağı Kartli) or "Lower Kartli", is a historic province and current administrative region ( mkhare) in southeastern Georgia. The city of Rustavi is the regional capital.
Location
K ...
References
External links
Dmanisi archaeological site
* Kalmakoff, Jonathan J
*
*
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Kvemo Kartli
Archaeological sites in Georgia (country)
Former populated places in the Caucasus
Buildings and structures in Kvemo Kartli
Tiflis Governorate