Piltdown Man was just a bit of skullduggery

The Middy, December 2 1999

Since 1953 the village of Piltdown has become synonymous with a hoax which baffled Britain's brightest scientist for 40 years.

Piltdown man – reputedly Darwin’s "missing link" – was unveiled at the London headquarters of the Geological Society on December 18, 1912, before a packed audience.

One of science’s greatest fakes started life in 1908, when solicitor and amateur fossil collector, Charles Dawson, asked workmen at a Piltdown gravel pit to look at the fossil whilst quarrying. The finds were taken to his friend to Arthur Smith Woodward, a keeper at the British Museum.

Woodward became interested in the project and joined Dawson in further visits to the site. Fragments from the first skull were discovered up to 1912 along with the fossilised remains of other animals including deer, elephant and even a hippopotamus. British scientists were enthusiastic about the discovery but overseas peers were sceptical.

Objectors said the skull and jawbone were different species – it was just chance they had ended up in the same pit. But the discovery of the second Piltdown skull in 1915 by Dawson silenced some of the critics. As years went by another finds, including Peking man were made, Eonanthropus dawsoni became an anomaly - a creature on his own branch of the human family tree.

In 1953 the deception was exposed. New testing methods allowed scientists to put a more accurate date on the remains. Both skulls were found to be in the region of 620 years old and the jawbone was found to be that of an orangutan – probably about 500 years old. Animal fossils were found to be foreign in origin. The jawbone had been stained with a mixture of bichromate of potassium and iron, darkening it to match the skull. The teeth had been artificially filed down.

The hoax was revealed in the museum’s magazine, Bulletin. Dr J S Weiner, Dr K P Oakley and Professor  W E  Le Gros Clarke reported that the scientists who took part in the Piltdown excavation "were victims of the most elaborate and carefully prepared hoax."

But the writers gave credit to the fraudster: "the faking of the mandible and canine is so extraordinarily skilful and the preparation of the hoax appears to have been so entirely unscrupulous and inexplicable as to find no parallel in the history of paleontological discovery.”

There are a number of theories why the skulduggery lay unnoticed for so long. The scientists involved were a good repute. Methods used to determine the age of the remains were relatively primitive in the 1920s.

British scientist may have tried to pigeonhole Piltdown Man to fit in with their evolutionary theories.

The remains were authenticated by several of Britain's top scientists.

The scholars may have been dazzled by a desire to be part of the discovery, missing clearly visible scratch marks on the bones caused by filing the jaw and teeth.

The evidence was kept locked away in the British Museum. Scientists were restricted to studying plaster moulds of the skulls, taking a look at the scaffold to confirm the accuracy of the model.

The focus of the Piltdown investigation then turned to the identity of the perpetrator. Dawson and Woodward were considered to be of the highest character. But Dawson, the obvious suspect, was present when both skulls were discovered and mysteriously there were no more artefacts found after his death in 1916, despite Woodward's continuing research. If Dawson had been behind the deception, the motive was unlikely to have been monetary gain. The objective may have been the recognition which would result from such a major find.

Dawson and Woodward – long gone after the hoax was uncovered – but not the only suspects. Numerous others were present at the digs, and then the other villagers were aware of the work carried out at the quarry.

Charles Dawson’s stepson, Mr F J M Postlethwaite wrote in the Times in 1953 in defence of his late stepfather. He said Dawson had many hobbies but could not be considered an expert in any single subject.

"To suggest he had the knowledge and skill to break an apes jawbone in exactly the right place, to pare the teeth to ensure a perfect fit to the upper skull and to disguise the whole in such a manner as to deceive his partner, a scientist of international repute, would surely be absurd, and personally I am doubtful whether he ever had the opportunity of doing so, “ explained Mr Postlethwaite.

He went on to say that Dawson was duped – "evidently the opinion of those who knew him well, some of whom are scientists of repute."

The most famous suspect was the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who was local to the area. At the time of the excavations, he was writing the "The Lost World" – an archaeological adventure story.

The Piltdown man hoax continued to baffle scientists into the 1990s.

On May 30, 1996, the Middy reported the real hoaxer as Martin Hinton, keeper of the zoology collection at the British Museum. The finger was pointed by Professor Brian Gardiner of Kings College, London. According to Professor Gardiner, Hinton chose the Piltdown gravel pit for the fraud as he was an expert on its geology. He chose Charles Dawson to be his dupe as he found him pompous and knew him to be an incompetent geologist.

Hinton was described as an enthusiastic and eccentric individual, well known for elaborate practical jokes – even throwing in a tool that looked like a cricket bat carved from part of an elephant.

Professor Gardner turned detective when an old canvas trunk belonging to Hinton was found to contain old teeth and other damning evidence matching the Piltdown skull.

In each case where fingers are pointed at individuals – there are more than a dozen candidates – evidence is merely circumstantial.

The Piltdown man hoax demonstrated that science was not infallible – perhaps the brains of Britain who examined the skull were steered by their own hopes, blinding them to other avenues of investigation.