The Disgrace of Charles Dawson

Charles Dawson (sitting) and the workers at the Piltdown

The Piltdown man was one paleoanthropological hoax where fossils were presented on December 18, 1912 at a meeting of U.K’s Geological Society by one proletarian archeologist known as Charles Dawson and by Arthur Smith Woodward a representative from the British Museum.  They presented such fossils to the other members at the meeting as fossilized remains of a previously unknown human to describe as the ancestor of all humans. Piltdown man was found in a gravel pit near the town of Piltdown which would be known to be in South-Eastern England. First of all, there was a jawbone structure that was discovered in 1907 in Germany that displayed similar characteristics between humans and apes. At that time, the jawbone was actually the best piece of evidence to be found. However, it was still not enough for the scientists. They wanted something more definitive. That is where Charles Dawson comes in. Dawson was known as a solicitor out in England nearby Sussex.  As previously mentioned he was also an amateur paleontologist.  In the year 1908, a few workmen that were digging at a pit near Piltdown discovered an interesting bone structure. They were very aware how intrigued Charles Dawson was by fossils that they presented such unique bone structure to him.  Such presentation piqued Dawson’s interest and he had an immediate irk to keep digging at such pit for more. The aid of Arthur Smith was thus needed and he was known as a keeper of The Department of Geology at the British Museum.

By 1912 Charles Dawson and Arthur had discovered what seemed to be two skull fragments and an inquisitive jawbone. Since both the jawbone and the skull fragments seemed to have aligned somewhat perfectly, they both concluded that these fossils came from the same species. It was quite an exciting discovery because the fossils had the characteristics of both man and ape. It is said that the jaw looked as if it came from an ape and the skull from a human. So if it was really indeed bone fragments from a creature then they have found a gold mine which would have been the ancestor of both man and ape. At the meeting of the Geological Society of London, Arthur stressed so much the “fact” that the reconstructed jaw and skull bones were from a human that lived about half a million years ago sometime in the lower Pleistocene era. The stressing of such idea brought so much questioning of is validation. Many felt that the jaw looked way too dissimilar from the skull structure and that it looked like it belong to an ape more than a human. After several years of questioning the validation, more fossils of animals were found in the pit that the “man” fossils were found at. Few decades past and several actual human bone structure fossils were popping out which led a team of researchers in 1953 named Kenneth Oakley, Wilfred Le Gros Clark, and Joseph Weiner to a rigorous series of test of the Piltdown man fossils. The skull tested out to be fake after it was tested by fluorine which the skull appeared to be 50,000 years old instead of half a million years old. The jawbone was actually just a few decades old from 1912. The second test involved nitrogen which again confirmed the first test; with nitrogen they found the jaw to be stained with potassium dichromate which made it appear older. These fossilized structures Dawson found were claimed to be from a female Orangutan and were planted at the pit near Piltdown which was greatly argues by The British Museum Researchers. Since Woodward was known as a very honest man, the pointed Dawson as the culprit. It became more relevant to blame him for the hoax because Dawson had previously trafficked in other false relics.  Till this day many scientist agree that Dawson was the culprit of such a heinous act.

The Scientific Significance that arose from the Piltdown Hoax was that accuracy is mandatory. Therefore every natural phenomena or some sort of fossils must be tested several times to conclude a definite answer and evidence explaining such phenomena. This hoax was a very great example in how it is important to take a step back from our preconceived ideas and actually look at the evidence thoroughly. One of various effects this brought to the scientific community was that this halted the study of human origins by many decades. Charles Dawson main concern throughout his fraudulent ventures of finding evidence of human origins were more about his scientific recognition and his ambition to be elected as one of the Royal Society. The human faults that can come into play as in falsifying such documents and even fossils that are supposedly evidence would be mainly the pride in being recognized and receiving an award more than the validation of the publications. The effect it brings is misleading information that will put a study in hiatus just because of how credible it can be that the length of its acceptance grows before someone becomes eerie of it. As quite scary as the effect that such situation to happen sounds like, there was a positive effect of this fraudulent discovery. That is that more scientists began to question and further test out every finding to make sure it is correct. The scientists developed techniques in which helped identify fraudulent findings as they tested out this jaw and skull fragments plus the scientific method was shown to be very effect when it came to classifying this discovery as fraudulent. The techniques or more like resources they used were both fluorine and nitrogen. These two chemicals were the ones to show in depth structure and alterations to the fragments.

Human factors being removed from science is not plausible because human factors are the reason why there have been quite advancement in science. Human factors are known to be a scientific discipline in which it gives a better acknowledgment of how to interact with other humans and other fundamentals of a system. Science has brought so many discoveries from the first fossil ever found to the newest drug that can help reduce life threatening diseases. This is why removal of human factors could probably hinder further scientific discoveries; it is needed in order to find not only evidence for natural phenomena that arise but also for advancements in theories or methods in order to design a well being for humans.

 The Piltdown hoax should be an example as to we should verify or per say go over our work before it is presented in order to avoid any errors. The other life lesson that I grasped from this false discovery is that both pride and arrogance lead to no other than disgrace. Charles Dawson had been very well known as an archaeologist but he wanted more and that is be recognized and awarded. But he failed because of all the pride he had from previous discoveries led him to submit fraudulent evidence and publications all for the vanity of having the recognition from the people of the United Kingdom.

for further information visit the following links:
http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/the_piltdown_man

http://www.history.com/news/piltdown-man-hoax-100-years-ago