Kindly contributed by Ian Tattersall, author of Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins. Besides being a neighbor in the West Village, Tattersall co-curated the marvelous Spitzer Hall of the Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History, where he is curator emeritus in the Division of Anthropology. Tattersall is also author of Becoming Human, on what makes our species unique, and The Last Human, the companion guide to the museum exhibition, which includes the remarkable re-constructions of the hominids.

“It’s amazing how so many of the sites that have yielded important human fossils occur in glorious landscapes. But my candidate for the most spectacularly sited hominid locality of all has to be the ruined town of Dmanisi, tucked away into an obscure corner of southwest Georgia, a couple of hours’ drive southwest of the republic’s capital of Tbilisi. High on a black volcanic bluff that rears above two converging rivers, and dominating an endless panorama of verdant, rolling countryside, in medieval times Dmanisi was an important staging post along the ancient Silk Road network that ran from China to Turkey and Persia. But its historical importance was overshadowed two decades ago by the discovery there of ancient human fossils that were dated to an incredible 1.8 million years ago —  making them the very earliest known emigres from the African continent in which humankind was born! Today a small site museum protects the rocks from which beautifully preserved fossils continue to emerge, making this hauntingly beautiful place the centerpiece of any visit to the Caucasus, where wine was born, and history is everywhere.”