Piltdown Blog

In February of 1912 a laborer digging at Barkham Manor near the village of Pilton found a piece of skull that he reportedly then gave to Charles Dawson, an amateur archeologist.  Charles Dawson then on approached Sir Arthur Smith Woodword, a very well known geologist and together they set off to continue digging at the site. They found an ape-like jawbone with human-like teeth that seemed to link it to the skull Dawson got from the laborer.  It appeared they had found the earliest human.  

What’s important to understand is that the British had no early man.  The French and the Germans had many Neanderthals and they were very proud of their discoveries and the British wanted one of their own, something to “rival the Germans’ ape man.” They were jealous.  The finding meant fossil evidence for the earliest humans and their primates; a creature part ape and part human; a fossil that connected humans with apes and ultimately proof of Darwin’s theory.  We know this to be true in todays day, but back in the early 1900s they did not have the technology, so this had huge scientific significance in 1912. On December 18, 1912 they presented the world with “the earliest Englishman” – Piltdown Man. However, some experts remained skeptical.

They found a tooth matching predictions of the size of the canine and even found another skull and tooth of Piltdown Man Two.  This find made Pildown genuine – no one could question the initial find now.  They even had the backing of the Natural History Museum, but in 1953 the world found out that Piltdown Man was a fake. It started with a chemical test to date the fossils (they were estimating the nitrogen content).  They found the teeth had been filed down.  The skull was a different age then the jaw – even worse the jaw was not even human! The fossils had been boiled and carefully stained with chemicals to make them look old. The canine tooth seemed to have been made in a rush because it was crudely filed and colored with paint.

No one knows for sure who did it, but the person who had the most to gain from the hoax was Charles Dawson. They say his ambitions to make a name for himself were limitless.  This ambition can be portrayed as a human fault. The need for a sense of pride also played a role because otherwise maybe the Natural History Museum would have taken more steps to verify the fossils instead of just accepting it and announcing it to the world. It was like they just wanted to win the competition, they wanted to be the best. I do not think that it’s possible to remove the “human” factor from science because it is humans who are doing the research.  How can someone remove something that is natural to them? After all is not our humanness that makes us human? We can reduce the chance of errors like this happening again by putting procedures into place, but I do not suggest removing the human factor from science. Our humanness is what makes us curious and creative; it leads us to ask questions and find answers.  We need that in science, too. A life lesson that I can take from this is to remember to be humble and of course, don’t lie because the truth always comes out.