The Characteristics Of The Piltdown Man

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A century ago, the Piltdown man was presented to the world as one of the most phenomenal and astonishing discoveries of time - only to be revealed as the boldest and most ingenious hoax in the history of science.
In 1912, Charles Dawson, a scientist and an amateur archaeologist, had exhumed two skull bones and a jawbone with two teeth after a three year excavation of the Piltdown gravel in Sussex, England. Dawson along with Arthur Smith Woodward, imminent geologist and a caretaker of the geological department in the British Museum claimed that the jawbone and skull fragment must have come from the same skull as they were a seemingly good fit. The skull had characteristics of both ape and human. Woodward named the skull Piltdown man. On 18 December 1912, they presented ‘Piltdown man’ to the world at a conference of the Geological Society of London where they exhibited a reconstructed skull. They enthusiastically announced that the jawbone and one of skull fragments…show more content…
The jawbone, for one, looked fare more ape-like than anyone would imagine finding attached to the high vaulted skull of a human. Furthermore a crucial piece of the skull was missing - the canine. Dawson employed the help of an amateur archaeologist, Teilhard de Chardin. A single canine tooth, which matched Dawson and Woodward’s prediction about its size, was excavated a year later. In addition to there, they also discovered another Piltdown Man. This put a stop to the doubts and suspicions. With support from family members and the Natural History Museum, Piltdown man was established as the earliest ancestor of humans.
For 40 years, the Piltdown man was accepted by the scientific community as a genuine artifact. Decades passed and new evidence was brought to light - The skull was found to be a
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