The Piltdown Hoax

A hoax, so cunning that it puzzled scientist for over 40 years in the early 1900s was known as the Piltdown Hoax.  In a village in England named Piltdown, an amateur archeologist by the name of Charles Dawson claimed to discover a part of an ancient human skull.  Subsequent this find, Dawson requested the assistance of Geologist Sir Arthur Smith Woodward of the Natural History Museum and French Paleontologist Father Teilhard de Chardin.  The three made shocking fossil discoveries together.  The fossils were a miraculous find in that primitive human fossils had previously been found in France, Germany and Asia, but not in England.  Most significantly, these fossils appeared to be over one million years old, which would have told us that humans were here much earlier than previously thought.  After continuous digging, a jawbone with human-like teeth was unearthed and apparently belonged to the earlier mentioned human skull.  In December of 1912 Woodward announced their discovery to the public.  The newspaper named this find the “Piltdown Man.”  There were mixed emotions among the science community.

The impact amongst the science world was tremendous.  Some scientist hailed their accomplishment with the belief that England had ancient human fossils and their ancestors may be the eldest of all.  Anatomist, Arthur Keith supported Dawson because the fossil discovery backed Keith’s theory that humans developed big brains before walking bipedally. Throughout the years more fossils were found at Piltdown and silenced the skeptics.  Other scientist felt this to be a distraction within the science community.  People had their suspicions but did not dare challenge these men due to their prestige nor did they want to go against the establishment.  Piltdown Man led research on human evolution over the next decade, though no fossils were ever found at Piltdown after Dawson’s death in 1916.  In the early 1920s, scientist found ancient remains in Asia and Africa, except that these fossils did not seem to relate to the Piltdown man because their fossil discovery was less human and hundreds of thousands of years after Piltdown man.

The Piltdown hoax was uncovered in the early 1950s by a professor at the British Museum by the name of Kenneth Oakley.  Oakley discovered that artifacts were stained, teeth were filed down to look human-like, and material was removed with a knife after being fossilized.  Professor Oakley analyzed the fossils through the technique of fluorine analysis.  He used this technique to date the fossils and uncover the hoax by proving first; the skull that Dawson discovered was much older than the jaw.  Secondly, the difference in the fluorine content in the fossils also led Professor Oakley to reveal that the jaw belonged to a female orangutan and not a hominin. 

Allowing pride and self-interest to get in the way of objectivity are the human faults that came into play in the Piltdown Man Hoax.   These faults impacted the entire scientific process.  Scientist and the people became vulnerable to the lies.  They believed what Dawson found was so miraculous and of course a man of his prestige would not deceive them.  The community lost trust in science. 

I do not believe removing the human factor from science would reduce the chance of errors like this happening again, nor do I think the human factor should be removed from science.  I believe errors are bound to happen whether the human factor is involved or not.  It is the involvements of the human factor that discover these errors.  Scientists learn from these errors and challenge them.  In this case Professor Oakley challenged Dawson.

      When it comes to taking information at face value from unverified sources, the Piltdown Man Hoax has taught me to be aware because scenarios such as this can and will happen.  I should always verify my sources and not take information at face value because I may become vulnerable to the lies and lose my trust in science.