Archaeologist and scientific leader of the excavation team, Giorgi Bijinashvili, belongs to early humans found in rock formations probably dating to 1.8 million years ago near the Dmanisi excavation site outside the village of Orozmani, Georgia. showing teeth. , September 8, 2022. REUTERS/David Chkhikvishvili
Olozmani, Georgia: Archaeologists in Georgia have discovered a 1.8 million-year-old tooth belonging to an early human species. They believe the area will cement itself as one of Europe’s earliest prehistoric human settlements.
The tooth was found near the village of Orozmani, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southwest of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. In Dmanisi, a 1.8 million-year-old human skull was found in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The discovery of Dmanisi is the oldest discovery in the world outside of Africa and changed scientists’ understanding of early human evolution and migration patterns.
The latest finds, 20km away, provide even more evidence that the mountainous South Caucasus region was likely one of the first sites settled by early humans after migrating from Africa. said the expert.
“Orozmani, along with Dmanisi, represent the distribution centers of the oldest ancient peoples in the world outside of Africa, the early Homo,” the Georgia National Center for Archaeological and Prehistoric Studies said Thursday, announcing the tooth find. did.
The scientific leader of the excavation team, Giorgi Bijinashvili, said the tooth was a “cousin” of Zezba and Muzia, the name given to two nearly complete 1.8-million-year-old fossilized skulls found at Dmanisi. said he thought he belonged to
Jack Part, a British archaeology student who discovered the first tooth at Orozmani, said: “The impact not only on this site but on Georgia and the story of humans leaving Africa 1.8 million years ago is immense.” said.
“It cements Georgia as a really important place for paleoanthropology and the human story in general,” he told Reuters.
The oldest Homo fossil in the world is about 2.8 million years old and is a jaw fragment found in modern-day Ethiopia.
Scientists believe that early humans, a hunter-gatherer species called Homo erectus, likely began migrating out of Africa about two million years ago. Ancient tools from about 2.1 million years ago have been found in modern-day China, while sites in Georgia have the oldest remains of early humans found outside of Africa.
