Charles Dawson

Charles Dawson ( * July 11, 1864; † August 10, 1916 ) was a British classical scholar, amateur archaeologist and geologist. He was a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and became internationally known as the discoverer of the " Piltdown Man ": From skeletal remains that were for decades considered as hominids, but eventually turned out as a scientific forgery.

Charles Dawson et al collected fossils for the British Museum. Probably as early as 1908, he discovered the skull Fund made ​​public on December 18, 1912 from a gravel pit near the village of Piltdown, Sussex, the honor was given to him the Latin species name Eoanthropus dawsoni. 1915 discovered Dawson - allegedly several kilometers away from the first locality - another skull, called " Piltdown II".

The skull remains of Piltdown had for almost 40 years great influence on the scientific hypotheses about evolutionary history of man, for they were the cause of many misinterpretations. It was only on 21 November 1953 were undoubtedly exposed as fakes.