Piltdown Hoax

1. The Piltdown Hoax was such a clever hoax it fooled scientists for more than 40 years. The Piltodown Hoax was a hoax in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilized remains of a jawbone from a previously unknown early human in 1912 by an amateur archaeologist, Charles Dawson. People wanted so badly to find the evidence for the connection between humans and apes. After this finding, Dawson invited England’s leading archaeologist, Arthur Smith Woodward, and French archaeologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, to Piltdown where the first discovery of the jawbone was made. These three men concluded that the jawbone that was discovered shows the connection between the apes and humans. Scientists believed that England also had human fossils like others and that England’s human ancestors might be the oldest out of any ancestors. For the next decade, people were obsessed with the model of Piltdown man and of human evolution even though there were no other Piltdown fossils discovered after Charles Dawson died.  However, there were ancient fossils of human ancestors found in other continents that conflicted with the Piltdown findings. But because scientists did not have the proper tools and knowledge, they were not able to explain the difference in Piltdown discoveries and the fossils from other continents. But that did not stop scientist’s years later for finding a way to figure out the truth about these fossils and concluded that someone forged the Piltdown Fossils.

2. The mistake here was England jumped to conclusions so fast because they wanted to prove so badly that human origins were from Britain and the search for the evidence connection between apes and humans was very intense, they stated that the fossil found could be the oldest human like fossil. It was said that the hoax started with Charles Dawson’s ambition and pride and it went on for so long because people would have believed anything that led them to finding the connection between apes and humans, they were willing to ignore the facts. Pride and respect was taken from England because of this hoax.

3. The positive aspects here were that scientists were able to prove that the fossil they found was rather young. By measuring the flouring content of fossils, scientists could roughly date them. So because of this, scientists used fluorine on the Piltdown fossils. The staining on the burn was superficial and the material was cut probably using a steel knife. Also, the jaw- bone dated back to less than 100 years and came from a female orangutan because they noticed that a canine tooth was cut down using a knife. It was very smart of them to test everything possible to know everything about these fossils and finally prove the truth.  

4. I do not think it is possible to remove human factor from science because everyone makes mistakes and everyone has their own theory on everything. Even though someone may be wrong does not mean that everything is a hoax. That is why it is important to always check every finding to find out the truth. If the person is wrong than so be it, but chances are they can be right. This hoax was different because no one bothers to fact check the findings until years later.

        

 5. What I learned from this historical event is that it is so important to fact check everything that comes to you. You should always put it the effort no mater how long it takes to fact check and thoroughly examine the truth for whatever is told. Also, it is important to put your pride aside when it comes to science because it is so easy to be wrong. Definitely fact- check the truth.