Often credited with being the greatest scientific hoax of the twentieth century, Piltdown man has been the subject of over five hundred books, essays, and pamphlets. Accusations against people for setting up the hoax have been profound, and range from the paleontologist who is credited with discovering the first skull to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to one museum curator trying to get revenge on another.
In 1908, in a quarry in Piltdown, England, paleontologist Charles Dawson reported that the jawbone of an early human had been found. In his reports, he claimed that two anonymous gravel workers had uncovered it. He predicted that very soon more remains of the animal would be uncovered.
By 1912, the rest of the jaw and a large portion of the cranium had been discovered. The findings confirmed a popular hypothesis. It showed that the development of the cranium preceded the development of the facial features. Few other hominid fossils had been found by 1912, and the few that were known were relatively recent, and hence showed little about long term development.
While the finding was not without its critics, Piltdown man was very well received, and by 1915, a second skull of the same type had been found. The second skull converted most all skeptics. The human-like cranium and ape-like jaw being found together may have just been a coincidence, but two were indisputable.
The 1920s brought new hominid finding. One of particular interest was the Taung baby discovered by Raymond Dart. The skull showed the development of the human jaw occurring before the development of the cranium. Further findings showed this as the case, and by 1950, the anthropologists had found that human lineage made far more sense when Piltdown man had been left out.
Under the aegis of Dr. J S Weiner, he and two other scientists had performed more thorough testing on the skull fragments and uncovered that Piltdown was a hoax, exposing the biggest case of fraud in twentieth-century science. Examinations of the bone fragments had shown that the cranium of the first Piltdown skull was from the Ona tribe in Africa was approximately 620 years old. Its jawbone was from an orang utan, approximately 500 years old, and the teeth were from a prehistoric elephant, hippo, and chimp. The teeth were filed down to show wear, and the cranium and jawbone had been soaked in a solution of iron and manganese to make test results tell that they were genuine fossils.
Upon exposure, in 1953, there were three main questions that had yet to be answered: why had the hoax not been discovered earlier? who did it? and why?
In 1912, the analytical tools available to the paleontologists were very primitive. Reliable chemical tests were not yet available. Knowledge of geology and human evolution was very limited. In addition, all the paleontologists involved were very reputable people. No one would expect a hoax from the top people in their field. The skulls were forged in such a way that they were designed to pass the limited testing that they would undergo. They also fit the expectations the paleontologists had at the time, precisely that the cranium had developed before the facial features. But, most importantly, the tests they underwent were not very thorough and small errors allowed detection to pass through. Even for the time, the x-rays taken when the skull was found were very poor. The jaw hadn't been examined under a microscope. If it had, the scientists would have found that the wear patterns on the molars were erroneous.
The next question is "who dun it?" Since its exposure, dozens of people have been accused, most notably were Charles Dawson, Sir Arthur Keith, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Martin Hinton. Charles Dawson was the one credited with the findings of both skulls. He was the one who perpetuated that the Piltdown quarry should be excavated. He was very knowledgeable about paleontology and is linked to at least a dozen other forgeries. Sir Arthur Keith had worked with Dawson in examining the skulls. The British Medical Journal published an article about the meeting announcing the finding on December 12, 1912. While published as an anonymous article, research into Keith's diary found that Keith wrote the article three days before the meeting took place. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a neighbor of Charles Dawson's. He was an amateur bone hunter, and took part in the digs in the Piltdown quarry. It has been argued that his The Lost World details the events of the forgery in a coded manner. Also, he was an avid spiritualist who may have wanted to discredit science. Martin Hinton was a curator of zoology at the British Museum. He did much research on fossilization, and after his death, a great many bones, including teeth, had been found that had been soaked in the same solution as the Piltdown bones. The teeth had been carved in a manner similar to those of Piltdown. In addition, he was well known for his elaborate practical jokes.
Why? Without anyone involved exposing the hoax, and without a clear perpetrator, motivations can only be ambiguously speculated. Perhaps Dawson wanted to make a name for himself. Perhaps someone involved did it for the money. Or perhaps they wanted to discredit science fellow scientists. Since the forgery was exposed more than forty years after the findings, it is unlikely that it would have been used to discredit any individuals. It is also possible that Dawson wished to use it to discredit others, but died shortly after Piltdown II was found, before he wished to expose it. We may never know.
