Dmanisi in the context of "Early expansions of hominins out of Africa"

The Mashavera (Georgian: მაშავერა) is a river of southern Georgia. It is 66 km (41 mi) long, and has a 1,390 km (540 sq mi) drainage basin. It is a right tributary of the Khrami, which in turn is a tributary of the Kura. It flows through the towns of Dmanisi and Bolnisi.

D2700, also known as Dmanisi skull 3, is one of five skulls discovered in Dmanisi, Georgia in 2001 and classified as early Homo erectus. It is an almost complete skull and is in an exceptionally good condition. It was dated stratigraphically as about 1.8 million years old.

Since the publication of the Dmanisi skull 5 in 2013, all of the five Dmanisi skulls (Skull 3 included) have contributed to the ongoing debate on human taxonomy, with some experts proposing the re-categorization of Homo ergaster, and possibly even Homo habilis, as morphologically diverse subspecies of H. erectus.

The Dmanisi skull, also known as Skull 5 or D4500, is one of five skulls discovered in Dmanisi, Georgia and classified as early Homo erectus. Described in a publication in October 2013, it is estimated to be about 1.8 million years old and is the most complete skull of a Pleistocene Homo species, and the first complete adult hominin skull of that degree of antiquity. According to researchers, the discovery "provides the first evidence that early Homo comprised adult individuals with small brains but body mass, stature and limb proportions reaching the lower range limit of modern variation." The skull has been the cause of a paleontological controversy that is still ongoing as of 2017: many hominin fossils thought to be from different species such as Homo rudolfensis or Homo habilis may not have been separate species at all. Rather, they may have been a single evolving lineage.

Dmanisi (Georgian: დმანისის მუნიციპალიტეტი, Dmanisis munitsip’alit’et’i) is a municipality in Georgia's southern region of Kvemo Kartli, covering an area of 1,198.8 km (463 sq mi). As of 2021 it had a population of 20,922 people. The city of Dmanisi is its administrative centre.

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 Georgian National Academy of Sciences (2009), and since 2004 the General Director of the Georgian National Museum (GNM). He is a son of the archaeologist Otar Lordkipanidze.

David Lordkipanidze is best known for his discovery of the hominin fossil, first named Homo georgicus, but later reclassified as Homo erectus. Conducting excavation at Dmanisi in Georgia, he found skulls of an early hominin thought to be a precursor of Homo erectus. Subsequently, four fossil skeletons were found, showing a species still with primitive features in its skull and upper body but with relatively advanced spines and lower limbs, providing greater mobility. They represent a stage soon after the transition from Homo habilis to Homo erectus, and have been dated at 1.8 million years before the present.