The Cradle of Man… in the Republic of Georgia?

Physical anthropologists with Washington University of St. Louis have looked over some pretty old bones from a site near Tblisis and found humans were in Europe a lot earlier than we thought… a lot
closer to Lucy than to the Neanderthals:

The fossils, dated to 1.8 million years old, show some modern aspects of lower limb morphology, such as long legs and an arched foot, but retain some primitive aspects of morphology in the shoulder and foot. The species had a small stature and brain size more similar to earlier species found in Africa.