Human Cognitive Evolution Workshop
Tbilisi, Georgia

Excavations at the Dmanisi site near Tbilisi, Georgia.

Stone Age Institute researchers joined their international research partners in Tbilisi, Georgia September 26th-30th, 2016 to participate in a set of workshops where they presented lectures, had discussion meetings, visited important sites, and examined prehistoric artifacts and fossils. Workshop activities took place at the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi and the Dmanisi site, located approximately 60 miles southwest of Tbilisi.

This set of workshops form a part of a three-year grant project “What Drives Human Cognitive Evolution?” The three-year project is funded by a grant awarded to the Stone Age Institute and Indiana University’s Cognitive Science Program by the John Templeton Foundation. This project brings together researchers from the U.S., Tanzania, China, and the Republic of Georgia.

The participants:
From the Stone Age Institute/Indiana University:
Kathy Schick (archaeology, paleoanthropology)
Nicholas Toth (archaeology, paleoanthropology)
Jackson Njau, (geology, paleoanthropology)
Tom Schoenemann (paleoneurology and paleoanthropology)
Kevin Hunt (primatology and paleoanthropology)
Peter Todd (cognitive science, informatics, and evolutionary psychology)
Colin Allen (philosophy)

From Tanzania:
Jackson Njau (paleoanthropology and geology, Indiana University, Arusha National Natural History Museum)
Joshua Mwankunda (engineering, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority)

From the Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China:
Guan Ying (archaeology and paleoanthropology)
Gao Xing (archaeology and paleoanthropology)

From the Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia:
David Lordkipanidze (paleoanthropology and paleontology)
Teona Shelia (archaeology)
David Zhvania (archaeology)

Researchers visit the new exhibit on Stone Age Georgia
in the Georgian National Museum. The exhibit was funded
in part by the Stone Age Institute and the John Templeton
Foundation.

Project researchers at the workshops in Georgia.