Dmanisi

Dmanisi is a small town and archaeological site in Mashavera river valley of  Georgia, 93 kilometres south-west of the Georgian capital Tbilisi. It is best known for the discovery, between 1991 and 2007, of various bones and skulls which - aged 1.8 million years - are believed to be the oldest human remains ever found outside of Africa, and evidence of a evolutionary precursor to Homo erectus. They have seen Dmanisi and Georgia labelled the "cradle of European civilization" by David Lordkipanidze, the anthropologist and archaeologist leading the research there.

Various other ancient and medieval artefacts have also been found at the site over the years, as well as some ruins and structures dating from throughout Dmanisi's long history. These include animal bones identified by the Georgian paleontologist A. Vekua in 1983 as being teeth from the extinct rhino Dicerorhinus etruscus etruscus.