Piltdown Man: An Anthropological Scam of the 20th Century That Almost Failed

For many, the world of scientists is seen as a community of noble intellectuals, where everyone is fanatically passionate about his idea, bears responsibility to the world and humanity, and is ready to devote his whole life to serving science. But for someone, scientific activity becomes only a way to satisfy personal ambitions, and this is not always achieved legally. In the world of science, there are many cases of fraud and forgery, especially archeology is rife with them. For example, the story of the Piltdown man, who was first declared a sensational find that restored the course of history, and later turned out to be just a fake.

This discovery, which caused a lot of noise in the scientific community, was first introduced to the world by British lawyer Charles Dawson. He was a very respected man and in his spare time he was engaged in archaeological excavations. As an amateur archaeologist, he was able to make a number of interesting discoveries, collect an impressive collection of fossil plants and animal remains, and also earn respect in the scientific community. Moreover, some of his finds were discovered for the first time, and ancient fossils were named in his honor. For this reason, when Charles Dawson announced the discovery of an ancient skull in Piltdown's construction career, it almost did not arouse suspicion.

The find of the remains of the skull is dated 1912. Dawson presented it as a link in a long chain of evolution from highly developed monkeys to intelligent people. The lawyer brought in a joint excavation of the British archaeologist Arthur Smith Woodward. An unsuspecting authoritative scientist became a skillful tool in the hands of a swindler: Woodward, along with Dawson, found several more fragments of "ancient remains", reconstructed the skull, compiled a scientific description and proposed the name of a new species. Dawson later discovered a number of fragments of the ancient "Piltdown man" in various parts of Sussex County, which only strengthened the faith of scientists. The London Geological Society proudly reported the sensational discovery of the Piltdown man, who became the oldest in the UK and finally filled the missing knowledge gaps in anthropologists.

But from the very beginning of the history of the “ancient man,” there were skeptics who doubted the authenticity of the find. Even then, at the beginning of the 20th century, without precision equipment and genetic data, scientists were found who pointed out the oddities and inconsistencies in the structure of various sections of the reconstructed skull. And after a thorough analysis, which became possible only in the 50s of the last century, it was possible to find out that the skull does not belong to an ancient person at all, but to a modern intelligent person, with the exception of the lower jaw, which was borrowed from ... an orangutan.

But we will not strictly judge Charles Dawson and blame only one on what happened. Yes, a respected lawyer longed for fame and worldwide fame at all costs, but all British science of that period joyfully supported the find, which from the very beginning caused a number of doubts among authoritative experts. The fact is that Great Britain was deprived of sensational finds in the field of anthropology, and the scientific world of the country was eager to join the past of mankind, to contribute to the establishment of truth and the solution to the mysteries of the evolutionary process. For this reason, the skull of an ancient human ancestor caused such euphoria among archaeologists, because no one even wanted to verify its authenticity.

Watch the video: The Man with the Bone (May 2024).