Reid Ferring and colleagues publish research on Homo erectus migration in the PNAS

Reid Ferring was the lead author on an article recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences titled: "Earliest human occupations at Dmanisi (Georgian Caucasus) dated to 1.85-1.78 Ma." The article documents recent work at the site that yielded the first stone artifacts from the oldest layers of the site. These show that the site was occupied much earlier than previously thought, and that it was also occupied numerous times over a long period, before accumulation and burial of Dmanisi's large number of human fossils, dated to 1.77 Ma (million years ago). The research also suggests that Dmanisi was probably occupied before Homo erectus fossils appear in Africa, leading to the suggestion that Homo erectus may have evolved in Eurasia from a more primitive ancestor, and then migrated back to Africa. This presents a major challenge to conventional interpretations, and has already stimulated considerable interest in the scientific community as well as the popular press.

Reid just completed his second field season of excavations at Dmanisi, with support from a 2010 grant from the National Science Foundation. The 2011 season yielded several thousand artifacts and animal fossils, which will provide new clues as to how the small Dmanisi people survived in the temperate environments of Georgia.

Photo: New excavations at Dmanisi, reaching back to its earliest occupations, dated to about 1.85 million years ago.