Krystal Morrice
Piltdown Hoax Blog
Anthropology Week 5
Tuesday March 5, 2013
The Piltdown hoax was discovered
in 1953. It originally started in 1908 and went through 1913,
when the fossil remains of both a human and an ape were
found in the same location of Piltdown. The
scientists, archeologists, and geology professor that originally
found these remains believed that this
“species” that they found was the link between primate
and humans. This was a huge discovery in its
time and unfortunately due to lack of technology and the
fact that the “Piltdown Mans” remains were
locked away in a British Museum, it wasn’t discovered
that it was phony until 1953. Instead of these
remains dating back to millions of years ago, they were
only about 100 years old. The remains were also
hand stained and shaved down in certain areas to resemble
a human rather than an ape. The hoax was
discovered when scientists were running in depth inspection
of the fossils. After world war two the
invention of a new technology allowed scientists to
measure the level of the fluorine content of the
fossils; this revealed how far back each fossil dated;
proving that the Piltdown Man was not fossils from
the same species and most importantly that they weren’t
from millions of years ago. So why would
these scientists forge the Piltdown man? It is still
under investigation but the main suspects are Charles
Dawson, an amateur archeologist, Tielhard De Chardin, a theologian
and scientist that worked at the
Museum the remains were stored at, W. J. Sollas, a
professor of geology who helped Dawson and
Chardin dig up remains, Grafton Elliot Smith, the
gentleman who wrote the paper about the find, and
Martin A. C. Hilton, a curator of zoology who’s suitcase
was found with bones similar to those of the
Piltdown Man’s bones. People have ruled out a lot of
these people and believe that it was Charles
Dawson since he was the first and last scientist to find
the Piltdown remains. Even though investigations
point towards Dawson, it is possible that he had
accomplices in his work.
It is hard to say why someone
would do this, but probably fame or recognition had a lot to do
with it. It was upsetting when this hoax was revealed
because scientists didn’t really think of the fact
that people could lie or make up remains or scientific
research, but now that it has taken place many
scientists and researchers are careful and pay attention
to ensure that they aren’t misled the way
everyone was deceived with the Piltdown Hoax. People make
mistakes, so it is understandable that
people believed these scientists when they revealed the
Piltdown man’s fossils. The evidence was right
in front of them, so why wouldn’t they believe it? Now
that it is proven to be a fraud, people have
become more skeptical of science. This isn’t a bad thing
though, it actually means that people will
question and test things more thoroughly when they are
found which will then ensure that the finding
are indeed real.
At time goes on technology
becomes greater. In fact, technology helped reveal the Piltdown
man as a fake. As I briefly talked about earlier, scientists
used a new technology of measuring the
fluorine content in fossils to determine how old they
are. Then again in 1953 scientists did a full scale
analysis with the use of new technology, microscopes, and
new age detecting devices of the Piltdown
man remains. This new technology helped uncover a
scientific hoax and I believe that humans also had a
part in uncovering the truth. It would not be a good idea
to eliminate humans from science because, it is
humans who discover things, create hypothesis, test
hypothesis, and sum up theories. Technology of
course is a huge factor in these processes, but the two
go hand in hand when it comes to scientific
research.
The moral or lesson of the
Piltdown hoax could be that you can’t always believe what people say
or what they publish. That sometimes ideas or findings
need to be tested and examined by different
people and technologies to ensure the authenticity. The
fact that the Piltdown man was a hoax doesn’t
mean that all science is a fraud, but rather that science
is fallible and people make mistakes.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog post I thought that you did a good job at describing the incident that happened. But in explaining how scientists had figured out that in reality the fragmented fossils that where discovered where fake was a little vague. You could have gone into more detail about how scientists found other fossils that began to raise questions that initiated the reanalysis of the fossils.
You have many of the key points in your synopsis but there were also a couple of misconceptions. This wasn't a "missing link" between humans and primates. Humans ARE primates. The significance of this find (had it been valid) is that it would have supported the theory that humans evolved larger brains early in their evolutionary history. We now know this is false. Also, at the time it was argued that this was an early hominid, not both a human and a non-human ape. It was only after the hoax was discovered that they found out it was a human skull and an orang jaw.
ReplyDeleteThe question of why people wouldn't question the work is a good one, but there is a possible answer when you consider the international events occurring at the time. Germany and France had already discovered early hominids in their countries. England had not. Is there a possibility this might have encouraged easy acceptance of Piltdown by English scientists.
Aside from the new technology, what aspects of the scientific process itself led to the uncovering of this hoax?
Good discussion on the human factor. In your final section, is science fallible? Or are humans fallible? There is a difference.
A suggestion: Make sure your post is formatted correctly when you publish. You had some very good points throughout but the repetitive breaks made it hard to follow. Make it easy for your reader!
Good job on your post I really liked how you addressed the hoax and went into full detail. I too, also think that no one should ever believe what others say or do with out the evidence and hard facts in my essay I really wish you went into full detail with all your other points but overall I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDelete