Mzia and Zezva

Georgia – home to first Europeans

A team of scientists working in Georgia have unearthed human remains dating back 1.8 million years. It is believed the early hominids may have been among the first to leave Africa to colonise the rest of the world.

Dubbed Mzia and Zezva, the ancient hominids were discovered in the ancient settlement of Dmanisi in the South of Georgia.

With brains about half the size of modern humans, the pair were certainly not great intellectuals. But their kind are likely to have been the first to make the journey out of Africa – which has resulted in their popular nickname ‘the first Europeans’.

The fossils themselves are closer to the more ancient African species of human progenitors.

Previously it was thought that the bigger, smarter homo erectus was the first human to leave Africa.