Week 5 Piltdown Hoax Blog Post

1.   In 1912, amateur archeologist Charles Dawson reportedly found a fossil, part of a jawbone with two teeth that was believed to be dated a million years ago. This was a huge find, never before had ancient human remains been found in England. They had been found in other parts of the world, but not in England. Dawson invited leading Geologist Arthur Smith Woodward and French Paleontologist Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to join him at the gravel pit at Piltdown, East Sussex England where the partial jawbone had been recovered. Other pieces of what was believed to be early human remains and animal fossils were found, mostly by Dawson, until Dawson’s death in 1916. After his death, no other fossils were found at the site.

   The scientific community was excited about the discovery, especially Anthropologist Arthur Keith who was thrilled about the finding because it supported his personal belief that humans had developed bigger brains prior to walking upright. It was a great feather in England’s cap and for England’s scientific community and a great headline grabber. The “missing link” had been found!

   From the beginning some scientists were skeptical about the find but only a few people were allowed to examine the fossils and no one was outwardly expressing their doubts. In 1949, scientists conducted tests on the fossils using fluorine testing which determines how long an object has been underground. It was discovered that the fossils were much younger than they were thought to be, approx. 100,00 years old compared to the 1 millions years old previously thought. In 1953 a full-scale analysis was conducted using better dating methods. It was discovered that the staining on the bones was superficial and that a steal knife was probably used to cut them. The two teeth on the jaw showed signs of being ground down instead of worn down naturally. The jawbone was found to be of a female orangutan that had been cut to hide the fact that the bones would not have fit an ancient human and so it would not be seen as coming from an ape. It was determined that someone had forged the fossils to look like an ancient find.

2.   I think the human faults that played into the hoax were hope, excitement and luck and pride. As previously stated, no findings of early humans had been found in England, scientists were very excited and proud that they could share in the other countries discoveries. It gave clout to English scientists, made headlines. If the small doubt that some of the people had would have been voiced better, this hoax may never have gone on for so long. If up to that point in time findings were pointing to other directions and suddenly these findings point into a totally different direction, some scientific analysis should have been conducted to try and prove it wrong. Especially in the case of Arthur Keith, he would have wanted his personal thought regarding brain size being before standing upright to be true, his human emotions won out over his scientific background.

3.   The scientific process that was responsible for bringing the hoax to light was the fluorine testing and the later dating analysis conducted. They took the hypothesis that the fossils were what they seemed to be a proved it wrong.

4.   I’m not sure that you could remove the human factor from science, or that you would want to. I think the human factor is important, we aren’t machines and the fact that we are human is why we want to find the answers to the questions of where did we come from etc. Machines don’t care don’t feel. The scientific method is in place to ensure accurate results. Unfortunately the scientific method was not conducted in the beginning when the Piltdown man was discovered. If it had been and the last step publicized the hoax would have/could have been avoided and any research that was halted would have resumed.

5.   It’s a nice thought to be able to believe everything that you hear or that is told to you but unfortunately this can’s always be the case. It is important to act on suspicion and prove things to be true or you can end up hurt and embarrassed.