RefutedArtefact

Piltdown Man

The "English missing link" fooled science for 40 years. Its unmasking founded the scientific policing of fossils.

Location: England · Europe
Civilisation: Paleontological hoax
Period: exposed in 1912, unmasked in 1953
Technique: Human skull + orangutan jaw
Studies

the proof of forgery is documented. A revisable snapshot of the state of research, never a judgement.

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In pictures

The elements of the site

4 photos · Wikimedia Commons

Location

Where the site is

51.000° N, 0.070° E · satellite view

🔬 Science

The proof of the forgery

What science saysconsensus, dating, published excavations
1953: fluorine and nitrogen dating, staining (iron + potassium dichromate) and filed teeth uncovered — a modern human skull assembled with an orangutan jaw (Pongo pygmaeus, Borneo).
The filed teeth carry striations impossible on natural wear.
2016 (Royal Society Open Science): DNA and morphometrics point to Charles Dawson as the "most probable" forger — without it being possible to affirm that he acted alone.
1913 (Dawson & Woodward, QJGS): official announcement of Eoanthropus dawsoni — a simian jaw + human skull presented as an early Pleistocene fossil.
1950 (Oakley & Hoskins, Nature): first fluorine test — abnormally low levels in the jaw, the signal ignored for lack of a clear result.

🜂 Mystery

Why people believed it

themes & techniques

Related to

ArtifactsCurationRegister

every line can be checked

Studies & sources

Peer-reviewDawson, C. & Woodward, A.S. (1913). "On the Discovery of a Palæolithic Human Skull and Mandible in a Flint-Bearing Gravel Overlying the Wealden (Hastings Beds) at Piltdown, Fletching (Sussex)." Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 69(1–4), 117–123.↗Peer-reviewOakley, K.P. & Hoskins, C.R. (1950). "New Evidence on the Antiquity of Piltdown Man." Nature, 165, 379–382.↗ConsensusWeiner, J.S., Oakley, K.P. & Le Gros Clark, W.E. (1953). "The Solution of the Piltdown Problem." Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology, 2(3), 141–146.↗ConsensusWeiner, J.S., Le Gros Clark, W.E., Oakley, K.P. et al. (1955). Further Contributions to the Solution of the Piltdown Problem. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Geology, 2(6), 63 pp.↗Peer-reviewDart, R.A. (1925). "Australopithecus africanus: The Man-Ape of South Africa." Nature, 115, 195–199.↗

Show 9 more sources

Peer-reviewDe Groote, I., Girdland Flink, L., Abbas, R., Bello, S.M., Burgia, L., Buck, L.T., Dean, C., Freyne, A., Higham, T., Jones, C.G., Kruszynski, R., Lister, A., Parfitt, S.A., Skinner, M.M., Shindler, K. & Stringer, C.B. (2016). "New genetic and morphological evidence suggests a single hoaxer created 'Piltdown man'." Royal Society Open Science, 3(8), 160328.↗Peer-reviewWeiner, J.S. & Oakley, K.P. (1954). "The Piltdown fraud: available evidence reviewed." American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 12(1), 1–8.↗Peer-reviewWashburn, S.L. (1953). "The Piltdown Hoax." American Anthropologist, 55(5), 759–762.↗ConsensusWeiner, J.S. (1955). The Piltdown Forgery. Oxford University Press, Londres.↗ConsensusWalsh, J.E. (1996). Unraveling Piltdown: The Science Fraud of the Century and Its Solution. Random House, New York. ISBN 9780679444442.↗ConsensusNatural History Museum (Londres). Piltdown Man — dossier institutionnel (collections, correspondances Woodward–Oakley, photographies).↗ConsensusScience History Institute. "The Problem of Piltdown Man." Distillations (2023).↗ConsensusTalkOrigins Archive. "Piltdown Man — compiled bibliography." (bibliographie canonique de références secondaires vérifiées).↗AlternativeMahon, P. (éd., 2014). "Piltdown Man (Case 5)." In : Hoax Springs Eternal. Cambridge University Press. (source contradictoire : biais de confirmation documenté dès 1915, doutes de Miller ignorés).↗

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