Piltdown Hoax

In early 1912, a laborer found a piece of skull when he was digging at Barkham Manor near the village of Piltdown in England. He then passed it on to amateur archaeologist, Charles Dawson, who passed on the news of discovering a part of a human skull to geologist, Sir Arthur Smith Woodward. Dawson claimed that the skull would “rival the German’s ape man”. After a summer of digging, they found an ape-like jawbone with human-like teeth, which seemed to connect to the skull Dawson had been given. The discovery was announced on December 18, 1912, named Piltdown Man or “the earliest Englishman”. It was accepted by the general public as it was proof of Charles Darwin’s theory that humans were connected to apes. It was proof of the earliest human. However, some scientist questioned its validity because part of the jaw was broken off, so there was no way to show if the jawbone truly fit the piece of skull. The canine tooth was absent. A year later, a canine tooth was miraculously found, which silenced those who were doubtful. This discovery was aided by Dawson, Woodward and priest, Teilhard de Chardin. The Natural History Museum and even Winston Churchill backed these discoveries. In 1953, the Piltdown hoax was announced. In the museum, Kenneth Oakley did a test to authenticate and date the fossils, which showed that Piltdown Man was much younger than expected. In the mineral department, tests were carried out to estimate the nitrogen content, which revealed that the skull had been stained and the teeth had been filed down. It was an old ape jawbone. The fossils were boiled and stained with chemicals to give them an aged look. The canine was filed and painted. There were several suspects who could have been responsible for the hoax. Conan Doyle, who created Sherlock Holmes, lived close to Piltdown and was in the same social circle as Dawson. He told Dawson he was excited about his finds, but scientists mocked him for his photographs of “spirits”, which made him upset. In his book, The Lost World, many things he wrote were parallel to the story such as saying “a bone can be as easily faked as a photograph”. He never admitted because he was engaged in political talk and trying to influence the British government in the conduct of war, so that would have been the wrong time to talk about such a thing. Charles Dawson is an obvious suspect, and had a personality of getting everything he went after. Other artifacts he claimed to discover were also fake. Woodward was Dawson’s number one supporter, but he didn’t even test the jaw for nitrogen content or spot signs of forgery like the filed teeth, even though he was the most eminent scientist at the museum. Martin Hinton, head of the paleontology department, was always skeptical of the Piltdown’s authenticity and some found stained and colored bones in an old one of his trunks, which looked similar to the staining and coloring of the Piltdown finds. Kenneth Oakley, who took part in discovering the hoax was also accused. He believed Martin Hinton was the one behind the hoax. Charles Dawson longed to find the first Englishman, since other countries such as France and Germany had long before discovered their early men. Things such as “egotism, pride, ambition and rivalry” can affect scientific judgments. Furthermore, those behind the Piltdown find did not take a close look at what they found or do tests on them to see if they were authentic or what they claimed to be. If they had spent more time analyzing what they found, or just holding up a magnifying glass to the teeth or bones, instead of jumping to conclusions, they would have been able to tell it wasn’t what they thought it was. Also, the fact that the hoax was not discovered earlier shows that other scientists removed from the situation did not try to verify their findings, they simply decided to accept them or at least many did. It took over 40 years for them to have enough doubt to investigate it throughougly, which is a huge flaw. As I said above, on behalf of the Natural History Museum, tests were carried out to estimate the nitrogen content, which revealed that the skull had been stained and the teeth were filed down. Kenneth Oakley did a nitrogen test, to authenticate and date the fossils which showed that Piltdown man was far younger than he was supposed to be. They also discovered that the fossils were boiled and stained with chemicals to make them look older. Even by using a magnify glass, Dawson could have seen the teeth were filed down. Therefore, the technology and investigation of scientists showed the positive aspects of the scientific process, exemplifying how talented and observant such scientists can be. It is not possible to remove the human factor from science, because a human has to interpret data and finding. Science is not only findings and research. It is connecting those findings and discoveries to other ideas and concepts and theories. Charles Darwin’s natural selection theory grew off of other scientists’ findings and discoveries, as well as other scientists’ theories and ideas. We can’t learn about the world simply by looking at a bone, we need professionals to analyze it and connect it to other ideas. There will always be chances in error, which is why every scientific idea is called a theory- it cannot be proven. I would not want to remove the human factor from science as I believe it is essential. If every theory is looked into thoroughly before it becomes a huge idea that people set as a basis for other ideas, then we will decrease chances for error like the Piltdown man hoax. This historical event shows that you should never be so gullible as to accept such huge information or ideas from unverified sources. You need to thoroughly investigate everything if such a huge idea is presented. Scientists mainly stayed quiet, even the Museum, instead of looking into the discovery from the beginning when people were having doubts. It doesn’t matter if you have many credible geologists on your side, there is no harm in questioning and verifying facts before deciding that if it is credible and reliable.