Piltdown Man
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The Piltdown Man was a scientific forgery. It consists of the fragments of a skull and a mandible that were found before 1912 in a gravel pit near the village of Piltdown near Uckfield, East Sussex County, South East England. From these fragments, the then British experts claimed that they were the remains of a previously unknown form of man's ancestors. The specimen was the scientific name Eoanthropus dawsoni given (such as " Dawson's man of the Dawn " ), in honor of its discoverer Charles Dawson ( 1864-1916 ), a British lawyer and amateur archaeologist.
Doubt as to the authenticity of the find and, after the exposure of the forgery in 1953, the search for the perpetrators proven over decades and brought a large stock of literature suggests.
Conditions
At the time of the Piltdown finds only a few remains had been found by early humans; the best known were the Neanderthal 1856, Java man in 1891 and the lower jaw of Mauer in 1907. Scientists interpreted the findings as transitional forms to modern humans, but the sparse findings allowed even a variety of interpretations, as well as in the question, in which order the development steps on the way to modern humans occurred. The discovery of Piltdown this question seemed to be an answer once and for all, and was therefore a sensational discovery. This explains well its rapid acceptance, although this remained the find circumstances dubious.
The special features of the find were his old age, which was estimated to be around 500,000 years a large, modern humans have similar skull cap and a more primitive lower jaw, reminiscent of the one great apes. From this combination of far-reaching conclusions on the evolutionary history of man have been derived, among other things, that the development of modern humans in Europe had taken place and that has already developed a large brain very early in humans. The first Australopithecus finds, the Taung Child was, therefore, for decades not recognized by British and U.S. paleoanthropologists as pre-human.
German and French researchers had not. Based on thorough knowledge of the Neanderthal finds from beginning to doubt the validity of the Piltdown fragments Also in the light of later fossil finds from Asia and Africa the Piltdown Man was able to hold at best, enigmatic side branch in the human family tree, since those a completely different path of development for modern humans occupied, total younger and with late -onset increase in the brain volume. The importance of the Piltdown man was 40 years controversial until it was in 1953 exposed as fake: The skull of a modern human and the cleverly manipulated lower jaw bone of an ape had been buried along with other fragments of animal bones and stone tools in the said gravel.
Discovery and publication
The exact circumstances under which the Piltdown skull was discovered, were insufficiently documented. Charles Dawson reported that it was in 1908 while visiting the Piltdown gravel pit by a worker a first fragment of a human skull was handed over. He was therefore the gravel pit repeatedly visited in the following years and discovered several more skull fragments. These findings, he handed each Arthur Smith Woodward, the curator of the geological department of the British Museum. Woodward was very interested in the finds and accompanied Dawson repeatedly to the site where they found common from June to September 1912, further parts of the skull and one half of a lower jaw bone, in which lacked the joint approach. At times, also Pierre Teilhard de Chardin participated in the excavations at the gravel pit.
On December 18, 1912 Arthur Smith Woodward and Charles Dawson announced during a meeting of the Geological Society of London, the skull fragments were an epoch-making discovery. The basis of the fragments found prepared by Woodward reconstruction resembled largely the skull of a modern human, with the exception of the occiput, a region at the junction of the skull to the spinal column, and the size of the brain, accounting for only about two-thirds of a modern man, and the only almost human-like teeth and jawbone, which was no different from that of today's young chimpanzees. Based on the high scientific authority of the British Museum Woodward interpreted the findings of Piltdown as a missing link between ape and man. The scholars of the Natural History Museum in London wrote - despite initial doubts - the finding of an age 200000-500000 years. He would have been much older than the Neanderthals. The announcement of the discovery was immediately a lot of interest both in the professional world as well as in the British population: the daily newspaper the Manchester Guardian had in early December 1912 reports on the Fund, with the result that the meeting of the Geological Society of London was so well attended like none before. The message of the Piltdown discovery was a sensation around the world. Over 500 scientific and journalistic publications dealt with the Eoanthropus dawsoni, including the Overview The earliest Englishman Arthur Smith Woodward, posthumously edited by Arthur Keith.
Introduced especially for the British and some American paleoanthropologists from the Fund a confirmation of their theoretical considerations demonstrate that the development of a large brain was a prerequisite for the Incarnation and becomes larger, the brain training other characteristics of modern man ( terrestrial habit, upright gear, tool use, development of language and culture) was preceded by. Therefore, the early onset criticism of Woodward's reconstruction of the Piltdown fragments remained largely unnoticed. At the Royal College of Surgeons, for example, copies of the fragments were used for reconstruction, the terms of the size of the brain and other properties to the modern man much more similar than those of Woodward. The reputation which Woodward enjoyed among his peers, but ultimately prevented any open criticism of his reconstruction.
1915 Dawson claimed to have found fragments of a second skull at a point which was about two miles from the site of the original finds. After Dawson's death in the following year, the candidate point ( Piltdown II) could not be accurately identified, also the finds are poorly documented. Even Woodward seems to have not visited the second locality.
Commemoration of the discovery
On July 23, 1938 Sir Arthur Keith unveiled near Barkham Manor, a monument to mark the spot where the Piltdown Man was discovered by Charles Dawson. Keith ended his speech with the words:
"As long as a man is interested in his long past history, to the vicissitudes undergone by our early ancestors and, so long to the changing events that they overtook the name of Charles Dawson our remembrance sure. We do well to link his name with this picturesque corner of Sussex - the scene of his discovery. I now have the honor of unveiling this monolith which is dedicated to his memory. "
The ( translated ) inscription on the memorial stone reads:
"Here in the old river gravel was Mr. Charles Dawson, FSA, 1912-1913 fossil skull of Piltdown man. The discovery was described by Mr. Charles Dawson and Sir Arthur Smith Woodward in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society in 1913-15. "
Unmasking of the forgery
The unveiling of the Piltdown forgery on 21 November in 1953 by employees of the British Museum and other institutions has been included in many academic circles with relief. The Piltdown Man had previously been regarded as a departure, which was completely contrary to the essential main direction of human evolution, as in other places in the meantime discovered fossil hominids seemed to show. Developed in the early 1950s method to measure the fluoride content of the fossils revealed the Piltdown finds a different, but in any case, far less than the originally estimated age dating to the middle Pleistocene. A subsequent age determination by radiocarbon dating was able to prove in 1959 that both the skull and mandible were only a few hundred years old. She pointed to the fact that the Piltdown Man is a composite fake.
The skeletal remains consist of a medieval human skull, the 500-year -old lower jaw of an orangutan and the fossil teeth of a chimpanzee. The appearance of an advanced age is generated by the bone inked with a solution of iron and potassium. Difficulties made in the falsification of the area where the jaw connects to the skull, because that is clearly different in chimps and humans in the form. This problem was solved by breaking off the treacherous ends of the jaw. The teeth in the jaw were filed to fit, and it was this filing, which led to doubts about the credibility of the entire piece: It was noticed that the tip of the molars was slanted in comparison with the other teeth in a very different angle. Microscopy showed grinding marks on the teeth, and it concluded that the teeth had been edited to change their shape, since monkeys teeth have a different shape than human teeth.
Perhaps the most amazing find was an "artifact" near the bone from which the scientists believed it to be a tool or part of a skeleton. This fossilized femur of an elephant had traces of processing by human hands, but could give him no meaningful purpose to be attributed. Its shape reminded in 1914 some of the investigating scientists are most likely to a cricket bat, but this knowledge then moved no further consequences. Presumably, the author of the forgery wanted to draw attention to his work, but the researchers to Woodward felt justified with every new find only in their theories.
The degree of technical competence of the Piltdown forgery remains a topic of discussion, but the special nature of counterfeiting is that the former experts offered them exactly what they were looking for: the strong evidence that human evolution proceeded from the brain - and in Europe had occurred. It was also believed that nationalism and racism played as much a role in the acceptance of the fossil as original as previously arose the demand, Britain needed a "first British " to set it against the fossil record of hominids, which in other parts of the world, especially France and Germany, had been found.
Possible counterfeiters
The identity of the Piltdown forger remains unknown, as his motives. Many authors suggest that this most famous fraud case of natural science was a stroke that went out of control. Suspicions could be detected for all researchers involved in the discovery. So Dawson, Woodward, Teilhard de Chardin, the anatomist Arthur Keith and Grafton Elliot Smith were also accused as Arthur Conan Doyle, who lived 15 km away from the reference time. He was put in because the established science had attacked his research on the spirit being violently a revenge motive.
Just about everyone who ever came in contact with the Fund, at some point the offense was suspected. So 1978 has introduced another possible culprit in the discussion of London paleontologist Brian Gardiner. He holds Martin Alister Campbell Hinton for the author of the farce. Hinton had worked at the time of the find as a freelancer and to 1945 as curator of zoology at the Natural History Museum in London and died in 1961. He left a trunk in the camp of the museum, which was found in 1978. The suitcase contained animal bones and teeth, which were filed and colored in a way that resembled the Piltdown finds. Shortly before his death Hinton had also written a colleague how eagerly he had dreamed as a young student from finding in the hills of Sussex the propagated by Charles Darwin missing link between man and ape. Especially when " in character unconsolidated members " of paleontologists community, he wrote, could " the temptation to invent the discovery of an ape-man ," simply have been " irresistible ". Unchallenged but this suspicion is not gone.
Other authors consider Charles Dawson for the most likely author of the forgery, as he was present at all the finds at Piltdown I the only one, he alone knew the reference Piltdown II and since his death in 1916 no further " discoveries " have surfaced more. He has also proven science presents a whole series of " archaeological findings ", which later turned out to be forged, including Roman brick temple and a figurine as allegedly the earliest evidence of iron technology in Europe. Even if Dawson is considered the most probable forger of the Piltdown Man, but it is doubted that he acted alone, and the question of possible accomplices employs scientists today.
Reception by the pop culture
Already in 1917 resulting early short story Dagon by HP Lovecraft refers to the Piltdown man. Even in the later short story " The rats in the walls " Lovecraft mentions the Piltdown man.
Mike Oldfield performs on his album Tubular Bells 1973 at the " Piltdown man" as one of the instruments he plays. This refers to a part of the album, the second piece, which was inspired by the early hominids and sung with a rough voice. In the revised edition of the album from 2003 called this part " Caveman".
In " The Psychiatrist", an episode of Fawlty Towers in 1979, a visitor is referred from the lower class as " Piltdown wimp ".
In March 1994, Apple Computer the Power Macintosh 6100, the " Piltdown Man " was the code name. Later that year, the Macintosh computer game Marathon was released in which a computer terminal with the word " Piltdown " in the header occurred. This should probably indicate that the release of the terminal is not completely true and the suspected transmitter does not exist.