The Hoax

      

                   


            In 1912, Charles Dawson (an amateur archaeologist) conducted a hand-dig at a gravel pit in Piltdown, a little village in England. Dawson had found what he claimed to be the fossilized remains of a human skull. Dawson then had invited Arthur Woodward, a leading geologist from the Natural History Museum, and Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French paleontologist, to join his dig at Piltdown. Through that summer, they made what was deemed "astonishing finds." There, Charles Dawson found a sensational jawbone fossil he claimed belonged to the ancient piece of human skull he had discovered previously.

 In 1917 Dawson discovered another skull and tooth, labeled "Piltdown Man Two" this was taken as additional evidence that his discoveries were legitimate. This jawbone did not look to be human, but something closer to an ape in structure. The teeth implied human characteristics, as they were ground into the shape of human molars, from grinding and crushing food over time. The find was incredible, for the time, and caused a lot of excitement in the field of science. It was viewed as the "rarest and most treasured find" of paleontology, and seemed to express some kind of evolutionary connection between apes and humans backing the theory of evolution, and even more so proving the theory of evolution to be true, by providing the trunk between the roots and the branches.  In England, it was widely celebrated by the scientific community because (finally) there was evidence that England had ancient human remains just as France, Germany, and Asia. What was particularly important to England was the fact that these remains dubbed the "Piltdown Man"might even be the oldest human remains found to date.

With assertion from England's leading anatomist, Arthur Keith, the discovery of the jaw and skull bones appeared to support the theory that the development of large brains came before the development of upright walking in human evolution. This was extraordinarily important to the field of science and to the field of human evolution. The findings of fossilized remains continued unchallenged until the death of Charles Dawson in 1916.

Contradicting evidence to the findings of Piltdown Man began appearing in the 1920's when, in places like Asia and Africa, where a number of ancient human remains began to be discovered. The contradicting evidence came in the fact that the newly discovered human remains were not as old as Piltdown Man, but was far less human. At that time there was insufficient technology to distinguish whether the remains of Piltdown Man were just a bizarre phenomenon in human evolution or a hoax.

In 1949 new technology allowed for a better method of dating the remains by measuring the fluorine content of the fossils. This method of chemical analysis had been devised in 1939 by Kenneth Oakley. Oakley found that Fossils absorb fluorine from the soil and water around them, so fossils found in the same area should be around the same age.  10 years after its discovery, Oakley was able to use the measurement of fluorine to reveal that the fossilized remains that were considerably younger than previously proclaimed (50,000 vs. 500,000), thus further confusing the scientific community.

          Then in 1953, after World War ll technology advanced to where scientists could date the remains and they found that they were much younger than expected and that the remains had been found to be tampered with.  The jaw bones were an easy give away that it was an Orangutan jaw had been removed, the teeth had been filed, and the fossil had been stained to make it appear older than it actually was.  Scientists were shocked and in the fields of human evolution further discovered telltale signs that this was certainly a hoax.  The scientists in this field have reacted by being aware that these hoaxes are certainly possible and to watch out for foul play. It was deemed the fossilized jawbone had been stained to appear older, and pieces of the bone had been cut off after fossilization. Additionally, the teeth had been filed down to resemble human molars. The jawbone actually belonged to a female orangutan less than a hundred years old, but pieces of the jaw that would have indicated this were broken off. In 1959 Carbon-14 dating became available and it was then revealed that the skullcap "fossils" were only about 1,000 years old and were really just old bones.

This physical evidence was very important to the field of evolution, and more solid than the circumstantial evidence. Scientists were shocked that this could happen, but it brought to light that scientists are human, subject to pride and self-interest, and are capable of lying to further their careers as seen in the particular case of Piltdown. It had previously been thought that scientists would not provide false science, but it happened, and now scientists are more scrutinized in their analysis of scientific evidence. Unfortunately, this gives further strength to groups that are against science, and specifically against evolution. It can now be argued, that scientists lie and therefore all scientific evidence cannot be taken as fact until verified by a second source.

I don’t believe that it’s possible to remove the “human nature” factor from science because humans propose new theories from their discoveries. Even though the theory might be false at first but it is natural for humans establish a hypothesis through trial and error. There will likely always be someone who revisits the theory that can prove, disprove, or improve it.

I have learned that it is important to question things when in doubt, not taking everything at face-value, especially important discoveries such as the "Piltdown Man". Discoveries should be carefully analyzed by multiple scientists that can assist in concluding a reliable theory. From the” Piltdown Man” hoax, a lot can be learned in regards to using verified sources. Maybe if the scientists in England in the early 1900's had taken their own skepticism more seriously, they would have been more resourceful and determined in their evaluation of the Piltdown Man remains it would have revealed it as a hoax sooner than 40 years later.