30th May 2012 Famous Historic Hoaxes

** Piltdown Man

Perhaps the most famous hoax was Piltdown man. In 1912, at a time when Darwin's evolutionary theory was new, and people were looking for missing links between humans and apes, someone planted two fake skulls which came to be known as Piltdown Man.

The part medieval man, part Orang-utan fossil was found, in the very English village of Piltdown in Sussex. Piltdown man's scientific name, Eoanthropus dawsoni, reflected its finder's name Dawson. To get a flavour of those times, the British Empire was still riding high, and Germany had their Heidelberg man fossil, Britain was desperate for a more important 'missing link' between man and monkey.

For 40 years Piltdown man was literally put on a pedestal and worshipped but not rigorously examined. The hoax lead a charmed life until it was unmasked in 1953. Microscopic examination, X-rays, or carbon dating would have exposed the fraud the impostor much earlier.

Urban myth has it that the fraud was only exposed when a cheeky first year student said to the Professor, 'That skull looks just like an ape's jawbone in a human skull'. When the Professor said, 'Don't be so silly', the pupil said, 'Look, you can even see where someone has filed down the molars to make them fit the jaw'. The student was of course quite correct.

** Who did it?

What makes the Piltdown fraud so interesting is that the hoaxer was never exposed, certainly during their life time. Much like horses at the nearby Plumpton race track, a whole field of suspects has been assembled for the hoax of the 20th century. The most exotically named candidate is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a friend of Dawson and later a Jesuit priest. One of the outsiders in the betting is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Homes, he came into the frame because he lived in Sussex.

Others runners, who have their backers, are Dawson's friend Smith Woodward, also Sir Grafton Elliot Smith. Lately, there has been speculation that Martin Hinton was the forger as similar material was found in his loft.

My favourite candidate to be the hoaxer is Dawson whose archaeological dig discovered the fossil. Dawson was an antiquarian, therefore had access to medieval skeleton's from which to build the two fraudulent skulls known as Piltdown I and Piltdown II. In an attempt to make the skull rust as if with age, someone had cooked it in an iron solution. Dawson had the knowledge of chemistry needed to age the unusually thick skull so that it looked like a fossil.

For me the main reason for singling out Dawson, is that he had other skeletons in his cupboard. Investigation shows that Dawson had dodgy form as the faker of other fossils, old letters indicate that the man seemed obsessed with the 'big find'. Join me and have a bet that the Piltdown man hoax was Dawson's crowning glory.

Tags: historichoaxes

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