Museum presents old bones

On August 17 Dmanisi Museum of History and Architecture presented sculls of the earliest humanoids, animals and stone tools dating back 1.8 million years. “The recent archaeological discoveries on Georgian territory have changed scientists' positive conclusions about the first settlement of humanoids from Africa, and the date of the colonisation of Eurasia has been pulled back hundreds of thousands of years,” Davit Lortkipanidze, General Director of the Georgian National Museum told the public.

Scientists from various countries are involved in the Dmanisi archaeological survey. Many students have come to the region to join the work. Pointing out that they have never before worked on such interesting discoveries, all the foreign students claim they will, with great pleasure, return to Georgia to continue working on the site.

The Dmanisi field school was granted official status this year and its participants take course credits from American universities. The archaeological digs in Dmanisi are sponsored by the Shota Rustaveli Scientific Foundation and the National Scientific Foundation of the United States. The new discoveries of Dmanisi archaeologists will now be sent to Tbilisi where all the exhibits will be processed for further conservation. The scientists claim that the Dmanisi discoveries, which have already received an international response, will make western Europeans rewrite their history taking into account the facts revealed on Georgian soil.