Piltdown Man Hoax

The story of the Piltdown man started in the early 1900s, in the rural county of Sussex, located in southeast England. An amateur archaeologist named Charles Dawson was digging in a village called Piltdown, when he discovered the remains of a skull that was thick and appeared primitive. This discovery would be the first in the Piltdown hoax. Due to the structure of the skull and the ape-like jawbone, and teeth of a human, this was thought to be the connection between apes and humans. The English people of Piltdown took a lot of pride in the discovery of this connection between modern humans and apes, because the earliest Englishman was now discovered. In 1912, we knew very little about human fossils and now they had made a connection that proofed Charles Darwin’s theory to be true. Sir Arthur Smith Woodward an eminent geologist, now realized that this might be a crucial discovery and joined Dawson in digging for more remains. Woodward believed the jaw and skull did belong together, but there was a crucial piece missing which was the canine tooth. A year later a canine tooth was found in Piltdown and matched the jaw based on the shape and size of the tooth. In 1917, another discovery had been made which consist of another skull and tooth, this would be known as Piltdown man two. In 1953, Piltdown man was announced to be a fake and this lead to a scientific world uproar. Kenneth Oakley was the person to put the Piltdown hoax to the test. Oakley applied a chemical test to help authenticate and date the fossils. The test revealed the Piltdown man to be much younger than expected. Other test conducted by the Natural History Museum also revealed that it was bogus, the skull was stained and the teeth had been filed down. The skull was also a different age compared to the jaw, and Oakley revealed a forgery on a level that had never been seen before.  The jaw was not human and could have been orangutan, and the teeth were filed down flat as a disguise. Every single one of the 40 findings at Piltdown had been forged and planted. A prime suspect would be Charles Dawson, because he was the first person to find the fossils and the last. Many people believed Dawson was just trying to make a name for himself as the popular young amateur archeologist that made an amazing discovery. The most famous person linked to the Piltdown hoax was the great writer and doctor, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but most people didn’t know that he was a medical doctor. He was also a person who collected fossils, and could have been one of the perpetrators of one of the greatest hoaxes of all time, the Piltdown Man.

The fact that Piltdown Man was a fraud has been repeatedly used as evidence that the entirety of evolution is a fraud. It is true that Piltdown Man was a fraud and had confused paleontologists for many years. Many scientists accepted it, while others were skeptical from the start. Since nature doesn't lie, many scientists took items from the field and tried to explain the discovery. When something falls too far outside the expected it is thought to be skeptical. In the case of Piltdown Man, some experts in the field almost immediately began to question the find. Piltdown Man was created with the objective of fooling scientists, but it only succeeded for a short time. After 40 years, the fact that it had been revealed as a fake is evidence that science is capable of seeing through illusion. This occurred by acknowledging errors, and refining its ideas by use of the scientific method. It also shows that theories like evolution are based on solid and consistent evidence. Every piece from Piltdown were found fraud by experts in evolution, doing the work of evolutionists.

Scientist had new tests to use against the bones found in Piltdown, which consist of a fluorine absorption test on the fossils. This type of test showed that the fossils were rather young, less than 100,000 years old. They also found that the staining on the bones was superficial, and all the artifacts had also been stained. A steel type of blade was used on the fossils to make cuts, and the teeth of Piltdown Man had also been filed down with evidence of scratch marks, it was made to a specific shape. These teeth had been proven fraud, as they were looked at by a microscope the scientists could see criss-cross scratches. An x-ray showed the lower contact surfaces of the roots were positioned correctly. The x-ray also revealed the roots were unnaturally similar in length and disposition. The jaw bone was from a female orangutan and had been modified to hide the pieces that didn't match with the skull. The front of the jaw had been broken off to hide that fact that it was an ape jaw and not a human jaw. The findings were proven to be geological error. The new technological advances helped scientists in many ways to identify the Piltdown Man as a fraud.

I don't think it is possible to remove human factors in science, because as humans we make mistakes. I think human factors can lead us to curiosity and lead us to finding mistakes from the past, and going back to fix those mistakes or theories. In this case, human factor played a big role in proving the Piltdown Man fossils to be fraud. I think having mistakes in science leads scientist to find new discoveries, and move forward. It may be possible to remove human factors from science, but if we removed it then science would not be science.

I think a life lesson to learn from the Piltdown Man would be to always try and correct mistakes made so we can advance into the future. If false actions are not taken into consideration, then we won't be able to surpass any failures and instead just cover it up. There will always be mistakes made by humans and humans are not perfect, and have many faults. If we fix our mistakes then we can achieve many goals in life.

Source:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/piltdown.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3202_hoax.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOxHLWMiULU&feature=related