An amateur English archaeologist named Charles Dawson announced in 1912 that he had discovered human-like fossils in Piltdown, East Sussex. In a Pleistocene gravel bed, Dawson had found fossilized fragments of a cranium, jawbone, and other bones. Britain’s premier paleontologist declared that the fossils were evidence of a hitherto unknown proto-human species. They were also deemed the “missing link” between ape and man, evidence of the then-still controversial theory that man descended from apes. As seen below, it was a hoax that wreaked havoc on science for decades.
A Remarkable Discovery in East Sussex
The pronouncement that the “missing link” had been found in East Sussex generated significant excitement, and was accepted uncritically not just by the British public, but also by many prominent British scientists. Further excavations were made near the original site in 1913 and 1914, in which stone tools were unearthed. Two miles away, teeth and additional skull fragments were discovered. So were animal remains, and a mysterious carved bone that looked like a cricket bat. The excitement grew with each new find.
Back then, there was a growing, and as it ultimately turned out, correct, scientific belief that human evolution from ape to man had occurred in Africa. It was there that fossils of Homo erectus, an extinct species of early archaic Pleistocene humans, had been discovered. However, the idea that humanity had originated in what was often referred to at the time as “The Dark Continent” was problematic for many of the era’s British scientists.
British Scientist Wanted to Believe in Piltdown Man
The Homo erectus fossils that had been discovered in Africa meant that humanity’s cradle was in Africa, and that all of mankind was of African origin. The idea that they were ultimately African was hard to swallow for many Europeans, including many British scientists. Prevalent racism and ethno-nationalism buttressed Britain’s scientific community’s confirmation bias. It made them interpret the Piltdown finds in the light most favorable to their prejudices.
The discovery of Piltdown Man in East Sussex, England, offered a feasible alternative, and thus a convenient out, from the challenge posed to the era’s racist theories by humanity’s African origins. No one need consider the possibility that all of humanity had originated in “The Dark Continent” if evidence of mankind’s origins had been excavated in Britain. As a result, prominent British scientists embraced the discovery, and defended it against all critics.
A Devastating Prank
Many British scientists wanted the discovery in East Sussex to be true. If the Piltdown discovery in England was accurate, it would mean that Britain had played a prominent role in human evolution. The “missing” link between man and ape would have occurred in Europe, not Africa. That would buttress the belief that Europeans – or at least the British – had evolved separately, and were not of African origins as the discovery of Homo erectus fossils in Africa indicated.
If the Piltdown Man discovery was true, then the racist assumption that Europeans were a distinct and superior branch of the human tree could continue unchallenged. In actuality, the Piltdown discovery was a practical joke and a crude hoax. However, because of a combination of ineptness, ethno nationalism, and racism, the discovery was strongly embraced and defended by much of the British scientific establishment.
Finding the “Missing Link” in England
It took four decades before Piltdown Man was debunked. That made it one of history’s most successful scientific hoaxes. It was also a hoax that seriously delayed the progress of science and archaeology. In those decades, few resources were directed at the study of human evolution in Africa. Unfortunately, that is where the actual missing links were ultimately discovered. Despite the dearth of funds for African archaeological exploration, more proto-human fossils were discovered in Africa in the 1930s. Those finds, coupled with additional Neanderthal finds, left Piltdown Man as an odd outlier in human evolution.
Nonetheless, the hoax continued to have powerful defenders, and it was not until the 1950s that the fossils were subjected to rigorous scientific examination. They turned out to be fragments of a modern human skull, only 600-years-old, the jaw and teeth of an orangutan, and the tooth of a chimpanzee. Chemical tests showed that the bones had been stained to make them look older, and the ape teeth filed down to look more human-like. As to the perpetrator, he was a disgruntled museum employee who wanted to get back at his boss, Britain’s chief paleontologist, because he had denied him a pay raise.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
History Halls – The Men Who Made Ancient Athens: Solon
Natural History Museum – Piltdown Man
