An Armenian-American group of archaeologists has discovered an early man site in Armenia.
Talking to ArmInfo, Boris Gasparyan, research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Science of Armenia, said a 1.8 million-year-old man site Dmanisi was earlier discovered in the territory of Georgia. This aroused some questions about migration of prehistoric humans out of Africa.
"The sites that 'go' after Dmanisi are 300,000-400,000-year-old. No one knows what was here in the period of over 1 million years. Scientists have debates over the development of the population in that area: if the humans developed autonomously after migrating from Africa, or it was just a period that was followed with a new wave of migration from Africa," Gasparyan explained.
The site found in the Debed community, Armenia, may give answers to this and other questions. "Debed may occur to be a new Dmanisi. We are discovering many million-year-old sites here. These are the earliest settlements in the territory of today's Armenia. We have already found tools of homo erectus (meaning "upright man)," the expert said.
Meanwhile, he said, more detailed excavations and research will take years, as the sites are in the depth of 5 meters. However, Gasparyan assumes that Debed may be an early man site like Dmanisi.
The first exploration activities in Debed were launched in 2009. The excavations are held in cooperation with the North Carolina University (United States).