Piltdown Hoax Essay

       The Piltdown ‘human’ was found in South East England in the early 1900’s. This piece of fossil was found by a worker who then gave it to Charles Dawson, an archaeologist. This fossil was very important for Dawson theory. Dawson then met a geologist, Sir Arthur Woodward and  an anatomist, Arthur Keith and Telihard.  In February 1912, Dawson published his discoveries and his thought about how it have the evidence of an ape-like jawbone and human-like teeth. This cause the scientific community in uproar. For England this was a great new, for they finally can have a proof that they also have old human-ape-like fossils found in their land. However, in 1949 they tested the fluorine content of the fossil and found out that the age of the fossil is less than 100 years old. They also found an artificial stain and the teeth had been filled on the fossil and in the end they found out that the fossil belonged to a female orangutan whose teeth had been filled so it will look like a human-like teeth. Big suspicion was given to Charles Dawson who was thought wanted to make it to the high class of scientific society. Dawson also found many other fossils with the same artificial stain found in the Piltdown’s fossil. In the end, the discovery was just a Hoax. It doesn’t have a any connection between human and ape at all.

       Being humans we all have faults which cause all of us to make mistakes whether they are intensional or not.  In this scenario, pride, and lack to details are some of the faults that were present. Lack of details occurred when they uncovered new early human fossils from different parts of the world they should have compared them to the piltdown discovery to see if there were any underlining similarities between the fossils which should have been present. Same basic jaw structure, teeth, and format of the skull would have been some basic things to look for when comparing the piltdown man and other early human fossils finding from different parts of the world. Pride was by far the biggest fault involved with this scenario, pride for his country and wanting to be recognized by the scientific community is what most say is the major motivation they say that Charles Dawson had to making the forgeries. He wanted to be accepted by the scientific community for his findings and also wanted England to have one of the earliest human fossils to ever be found he felt such discoveries would be England on top of the scientific community at the time. 

       About 10 years later, in the 1920’s scientist were digging up remains in Asia and Africa that were less human, not more human, yet were relatively younger than the Piltdown man remains found in England. While these remains lead to questions of the Piltdown mans authenticity or evolution path, the technology was not available during the time to fully study the bones. After WWII a new technology was created that allowed scientist to measure the fluorine content in fossils allowing them to give the fossils a date.  The test is called a fluorine analysis and was conducted on the Piltdown fossils in 1949. The fluorine analysis showed that the remains were only around 100 years old, rather than the previous claim that they were 1 million years old.  In 1953 scientist conducted an even more thorough exam of the fossils with better dating methods. The exam revealed that the staining on the bones was superficial, materials were cut with a steel knife after being fossilized and the teeth in the jaw showed groove lines providing evidence that the teeth were filed down to make them look more human. Belonging to a female orangutan, the jaw bone was modified to make it look less ape-like in shape and the canines were filed down to make them look more human. After the extensive examination, scientist concluded that the Piltdown fossils were not real.

      I wouldn't say remove human factors but remove desperation and self-pride as initial motives for finding the next great discovery. Emotions alone can cause conflicts in science creating bias theories which are not feasible for proper research. The personal human factors can cause damage to the continuity of studies, generations could be mislead like this situation with the Piltdown Man, everything demands the fundamentals of scientific research. Frauds like Charles Dawson, could have motives that was so eager to be noticed for finding a simple ape jaw he wanted the world to think he found something pertaining to man. As disgusting as it sounds his motive to present a lie is not honored, but the positive thing is that it make the scientist more aware of these types of frauds, should have been soon than later.

      I believe that there are several life lessons that can be learned from this historical event, the most important one is that if you start something new, you should finish it no matter what. Also, if you want to prove something, back it up with your own facts, provide evidence of your work, so that others can believe you and listen to you.