Piltdown Hoax
The Piltdown hoax began in the early 1900’s, in Piltdown, England. It entailed remains found by an amateur archaeologist, Charles Dawson. Fossil remains were discovered in France and Germany, but not England. London was home to one of the world’s leading scientific institution; London’s Natural History museum. Britain was anxious to prove it was the birthplace of the human race. Dawson took his discoveries there and teamed up with a geologist, named Sir Arthur Smith Woodward.
Dawson compared his primitive skull to Germany’s ape man. He later found tools and an ape-like jawbone, which he believed belonged to the skull. The public was anxious of the new discoveries, however some scientist doubted them. They questioned if the jawbone came from the skull Dawson discovered earlier. A tooth was later found that year. Dawson later discovered another tooth and skull a few miles away from his first finding. This silenced doubters. Woodward believed that the findings were genuine, although he never tested them. British scientist were uncritical of Piltdown and did not test the authenticity of the remains. They instead relied on Dawson’s and Woodward’s reputation to base the findings as authentic. People were afraid to challenge him because he was the most eminent scientist at the museum, and he was a well-known public figure. Science is not based on reputations, but it is instead deduction based on evidence. If Woodward would have applied the scientific method to produce testable, repeatable evidence to support Dawson’s hypothesis, that the jawbone, teeth and skull were human, then it would have been discovered the remains were not authentic. Humans make mistakes, however it is possible to reduce them if the scientific method is utilized.
Kenneth Oakley applied a chemical test to authenticate and date the remains. His test concluded the remains were stained, and not old as previously thought. The jawbone was from an orangutan, and not human at all. The tooth was painted and discolored. Piltdown was a hoax.
The life lesson that I learned from this historical event, is to ask for evidence to if a claim is made, and not to rely on a person’s reputation to validate it as true.
Angela, do you think that Dawson simply made a mistake or do you feel that he deliberately manufactured the hoax as some evidence suggests? Also, without the current methods of analyzing the finds, do you think that if the scientific method were applied it would have been able to be proven a hoax at the time? I agree that the life lessons learned are to ask for evidence thru the scientific method and not to just rely on a person's reputation.
ReplyDeleteThat first paragraph set the story up perfectly.
ReplyDeleteWoodward (and Keith) had reputations that could carry this, perhaps, but Dawson was an amateur archeologist. No real reputation to build on, which is why he pulled in some bigger names to support him.
Missing the section on "the human factor" but otherwise it was a good post.