In 1991, exactly 100 years after the 1891 discovery of Pithecanthropus erectus in Java, the International Senckenberg Conference was held in Frankfurt to review a century of Homo erectus research. At this centennial meeting, the first hominin find from Dmanisi made its debut on the international scientific stage. What followed was an extraordinary story of discovery in the southern Caucasus: over the next 35 years, systematic excavations revealed five remarkably well-preserved skulls, fundamentally reshaping perspectives on early human evolution.
By 2016, a quarter century later, the "Homo erectus enigma" remained one of the most intriguing questions in paleoanthropology, inspiring another major international conference in Tbilisi. Since then, the Dmanisi hominins have continued to challenge the scientific community and refine our understanding of early Homo evolution. With each new analysis, they provide not only answers but also raise new questions, highlighting how much of our evolutionary history remains unresolved.
Now, after 135 years of the first discovery of Homo erectus, and a decade after the last major international conference devoted to this topic, these questions remain as vital as ever. With new evidence accumulating, the time is ripe to once again reassess what we know — and what we have yet to uncover — about one of the most significant species in human evolution.
