1.8-Million-Year-Old Jawbone in Georgia Reveals Early Human Migration!
A remarkable discovery in the Republic of Georgia is offering fresh insight into the earliest humans to venture beyond Africa. Archaeologists working at the Orozmani site, around 60 miles south of Tbilisi, have uncovered a 1.8-million-year-old lower jawbone belonging to Homo erectus.
This fossil is among the oldest human remains ever found outside Africa and further cements Georgia’s place as a key location for understanding the migration of our earliest ancestors.
The jawbone was discovered this summer in a modest excavation area, no bigger than two parking spaces, in Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli region. Despite its small size, the site has already yielded extraordinary finds. Just last year, researchers uncovered a human tooth from the same layer of soil, which first hinted at the presence of early humans. The new jawbone, complete with two preserved teeth, confirms that Homo erectus once lived here.
Photo Credit: Georgian Heritage
Homo erectus first appeared in Africa about two million years ago and was the earliest human ancestor to spread widely across the globe, reaching Europe, Asia, and even Oceania. Some of the clearest evidence of this expansion comes from Dmanisi, another site only 12 miles from Orozmani.
At Dmanisi, archaeologists have uncovered more than 100 fossilised bones, including several skulls dating back around 1.8 million years. While the remains were once thought to represent a distinct species, Homo georgicus, they are now generally accepted as some of the earliest Eurasian Homo erectus.
Both Dmanisi and Orozmani have been dated to between 1.825 million and 1.765 million years ago. While Dmanisi boasts a larger fossil collection, the finds at Orozmani show that early humans were not confined to one settlement but spread across the wider Caucasus region, adapting to varied environments soon after leaving Africa.
Excavations at Orozmani have also revealed the remains of animals such as saber-toothed cats, elephants, wolves, deer, and even giraffes, alongside simple stone tools. The presence of tools near large animal bones suggests these early groups survived as hunter-gatherers, relying on both hunting and scavenging.
By studying their diet, tool use, and environment, scientists hope to learn how these pioneering humans managed to endure in unfamiliar climates and landscapes.
Although only a single jawbone and tooth have been found so far, Orozmani has enormous scientific potential. Researchers believe the site may reveal more about the routes our ancestors took, the diversity within early Homo erectus populations, and the strategies they used to survive far from Africa.
Ongoing excavations are expected to widen the search and uncover further details about what life looked like in the Caucasus nearly two million years ago.
The Orozmani jawbone discovery not only complements the world-renowned Dmanisi excavations but also underlines Georgia’s importance in the story of human origins. Together, these sites provide a rare window into the earliest steps our species’ ancestors took in their journey to inhabit the world.