Piltdown Man, the Missing Link That Wasn't
In 1912, a skull dug up in Sussex was hailed as the missing link between apes and humans. For 40 years, scientists believed it. Then the truth came out.
What was reported
In 1912, Charles Dawson, an amateur archaeologist, announced that he had found pieces of a skull and a jawbone in a gravel pit at Piltdown in Sussex. Together with the British Museum's Arthur Smith Woodward, he presented them as an early human ancestor with a large, human-like brain and an ape-like jaw. It was named Eoanthropus dawsoni, 'Dawson's dawn man'.
For decades, Piltdown Man was accepted by many scientists, though it fitted poorly with other fossils being found in Africa and Asia.
Explanations offered
In 1953, tests showed it was a forgery: a medieval human skull combined with the jaw of an orangutan, its teeth filed down and the bones stained to look old. Who did it has been debated for decades, but a 2016 study concluded that Dawson was very likely responsible. It's the most famous scientific fraud in history.
- When
- Found in 1912; exposed in 1953
- Where
- Piltdown, East Sussex, England, UK
- Witnesses
- Charles Dawson and the scientific establishment
- Status
- Hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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