Research at the prehistoric site of Dmanisi, in Georgia – one of the Italian archaeological missions funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation – is continuing this year too. The Italian Embassy in Tbilisi announced so, stating that the research is being conducted by an international and multidisciplinary group coordinated by the Tbilisi-based Georgian National Museum, with the participation of the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Florence.
The Dmanisi excavation site, with its finds dating back to 1.8 million years ago, has provided the most ancient evidence of hominids outside the African continent. In such a context, the Italian research group is specifically studying the rich fossil fauna associated with human remains, in order to reconstruct, as accurately as possible, the environment and ecosystem our ancient ancestors used to be part of.
This year, research is focusing on the study of the museum collections related to the excavations of the past few years. In particular, the digitalisation of fossil remains continued by using the structured-light 3D scanner, a technique that enables a three-dimensional acquisition of all data related to the finds and subsequent in-depth studies; the data can then be disclosed to the general public thanks to ultra high definition, through which the acquired fossils can be made available in a virtual reality setting.
The Italian members of the project, aside from helping achieve scientific data acknowledged by the international community, are also continuing to train the local staff.
