A medieval town site in the Mashavera river valley in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia, about 93 kilometres southwest of Tbilisi, where excavation under the ruins reached something far older. The Dmanisi skulls date to 1.8 million years and are the earliest human remains found anywhere in Eurasia. Five of them came out of one small area with strikingly different faces and sizes, and the discovery of Skull 5 in particular pushed the argument that several early species named from scattered African finds may really be one variable lineage. The town above was a commercial centre of medieval Georgia, taken by the Seljuks in the 1080s, retaken by David the Builder, wrecked by Timur in the 14th century and sacked again in 1486, after which it faded out. Both layers of that story are on the same hill.
The oldest human fossils known outside Africa · Early Pleistocene, 1.8 mya
This ground is protected. Photograph it, record it, leave it where it lies. On US federal land the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act 2009 makes collecting vertebrate fossils an offence, and penalties are real.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
