"The Piltdown Archaeological Discoveries"

It was the "Manchester Guardian" that first gave the news to the public that some exciting archaeological finds had been made at Piltdown in Sussex;

this was in 1912. The official announcement to the scientific community was made to a crowded lecture theatre at the Geological Society by two men, A.S. Woodward and C. Dawson. The discoveries included a very old skull, some flint tools, the fossilized teeth of a hippopotamus and some remains of other animals.

The excitement was on four levels. First a skull which was halfway between an ape and man confirmed the Theory of Evolution. Prior to that discovery there had been very little tangible evidence for the "missing link". The skull was believed to be about 500,000 years old so the discovery was important to naturalists.

Second, this was the type of science which could be readily understood by the general public.

Third, the discoverer, Charles Dawson, was an amateur geologist-cum-archaeologist, and the British always like a gifted amateur. (Woodward was a Fellow of the Royal Society and was a leading authority on fossils, he was very experienced and highly regarded; this regard for authority was significant in later encounters).

And finally it was shown that the first intelligent tool-making man was an Englishman - which, of course, is just as it should be !

Now the skull, though not complete, had both a jaw and some top teeth. When these were studied by C.W. Lyne, a dentist, he said that the wear on the teeth was quite impossible to have been caused naturally; there had been deliberate abrasion of some of the teeth; therefore the authenticity of the skull must be false. But the professional palaeontologists poured scorn on Lyne’s objection. There were a few other doubters but the official view was that the Piltdown finds were genuine.

By 1948 a number of other fossils of early man had been discovered in other parts of the World and so considerable advances had been made in understanding the evolution of man. It became clear that Piltdown man did not fit in with the rest of man’s lineage. Also by 1948 there were analytical techniques available which were unknown in 1912. An example of these was fluorine analysis and this indicated anomalies in the Piltdown finds. Further studies proved that Piltdown man was a fraud. Lyne had been vindicated.

There are at least two lessons to be learned from this case history. The first is that although scientific "received wisdom" sometimes takes a wrong turn, scientists get the answer right in the end. The second axiom is that experts in one discipline should be prepared to listen and learn from experts in another discipline.

It has never been revealed (as far as I know) how the Piltdown forgery came about. One theory is that a local hoaxer in Sussex wanted to expose Dawson as an incompetent amateur and that the hoax got out of hand. In any event it makes a nice scientific detective story.

Reference; "The Piltdown Forgery" by J.S. Weiner, published by Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, 1955.