The story starts in September 1991, at the borders of South-Caucasus. As any outstanding story, this one turned into a legend for the perseverance of a few men. The last day of their excavations campaign, professor Lordkipanidze and his international paleontologic team find out an hominid mandible. They do not know it yet, but they just laid their hands over the bones of the first Europeans.

The excavation site is just at the foothill of the medieval city of Dmanisi, 80km southwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
Carried out since 1936 by archaeologists uncovering the remains of a thousand years castle, Dmanisi aroused the interest of the paleontologic community in 1983 with the discovery of a Pleistocene rhinoceros tooth. But many things are still to be discovered on the site. The discovery of the mandible – today known under the name of D211- was just a fortunate start.
Over ten years or so, and several excavation seasons, four skulls and three mandibles have been uncovered. An unusual « harvest» from a single location, but this is not the real event.

Intially the hominid remains from Dmanisi were dated to 1.6 million years, and thus were assigned to Homo Erectus. But in 2001 a new dating study rocks the international scientific community. The new date which is proposed shatters the Out-of-Africa theory : Dmanisi Man is 1 810 000 years old.


Out-of-Africa theory challenged

The excavations in Dmanisi revolutionized the theory of Man venturing out of its African cradle. « Before our findings, the first venturing out of Africa toward Europe by the Levantine corridor was dated to one million years. But the hominid remains that we uncovered are 1.8 million years old : this doubled the date of the first hominid to leave its African cradle», reminds David Lordkipadidze, from his office in the Georgian Sate Museum.

Therefore this challenged previous knowledges and theories about the first hominids who first set foot in Eurasia. « Before the discovery of Dmanisi, we thought that it was a late Homo Erectus, that is to say quite an evolved man with a cranial capacity of about 1000 cc. Now, we found out here a group of hominids much more archaic, with a cranial capacity of only 600cc and very different from a ‘classic’ Homo Erectus », goes on professor Lordkipanidze.

This group would indeed belong to a new species, intermediate between Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus, or even maybe intermediate between Homo Habilis and Homo Ergarster : Homo Georgicus. « There is every indication that Homo Georgicus was not physically and technologically developed.», he adds.
With limited intellectual capacities, Dmanisi Man had indeed a much more primitive technology than Homo Erectus. The tools that were uncovered are pre-Oldowan, that is to say a technology comparable to the one found in Africa (Tanzania) and dated to 2.5 million years.

Dmanisi forced a rethink about the oldest humans who spread from Africa toward the doors of Europe : they were neither tall, nor built for walking, and even less gifted with a brain big enough to conquer this new world. Homo Georgicus is the missing link. The one that many were looking for in order to understand the beginnings of Man out of Africa.


Dmanisi, a melting pot for the next generation of paleontologists

For the time being, there is in Dmanisi the largest paleontological collection in the world. As it is located on a single site, this gives the unique advantage to study a specimen individually, but also in the framework of its population (technology, culture, environment).

Every summer, researchers from all over the world flock to Dmanisi. About fifty young scientists (American, French, Italian, Swiss, Spanish) rush every year to those few square meters of Georgian soil. International, the excavation team is also multidisciplinary.

The excavation site of Dmanisi is also a learning place. « we take part in training the next generation of paleontologists not only Georgian, but also foreign and notably French.», mentions David Lordkipanidze. He himself is a French speaker and has spent several years working in France.

As for the site, it is far from having revealed all of its secrets. Only 2% of the field have yet been uncovered. The new generation of researchers is already dreaming about finding out the next hominid remains. Moreover there are other possible excavation sites in the region : several spots exhibit the same geological layer than in Dmanisi. If no human remains have yet been uncovered, tools comparable to the ones of Homo Georgicus were found out there.


Recognition & knowledge

Showing the interest in the site of Dmanisi, the excavations are today mainly financed through international research grants (National Geographic, Leakey Foundation, European Union). The Georgian State is also contributing. But there is still not enough funding. Even if many grants were asked for, as of today all the uncovered remains have not yet been studied – for lack of financial means.

In October 2004, David Lorkipanidze was awarded the Rolex Prize for Enterprise. Dmanisi thus became the first Eastern European initiative recognized by this institution. Far more than a financial aid, this award bestows both prestige and world recognition to this piece of universal and Georgian heritage.

With its 100 000 dollars, this prize has also enabled to launch an ambitious project : building a protecting dome for the researchers with a field laboratory, but also for the general public with an interactive museum.
This steel and glass dome of more than 2000 sqm of which the construction should start in Spring 2005 will enable to meet the growing interest of the general public...but also of possible looters.

Actually, considering that several Middle Age and Bronze Age sites have already been looted throughout the country, the Georgian government is reforming, in the light of the French model, its heritage protection laws.

Far more than just protect its heritage, Georgia wants to promote it. In this view, a new institution, the National Museum of Georgia, was created on December 31, 2004 on a decree signed by president Mikhail Saakashvili.
At the head of this new administrative entity (gathering the Georgian State Museum, the State Museum of Arts, the State Museum of Ethnology and Karvasla History Museum), David Lordkipanidze does intend to keep on actively taking part in spreading throughout the worlw the hidden treasures of Caucasus. As for the site of Dmanisi, it might get inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List by 2007.