On December 18, 1912, headlines in British newspapers trumpeted the names of Arthur Smith -Woodward, a palaeontologist at the British Museum, and Charles Dawson, a prominent amateur archaeologist. At a press conference, the two men announced that they had found the remains of a prehistoric human, about 500,000 years old, next to the fossil remains of extinct animals and some stone tools, in a gravel pit not far from Piltdown Common in the county of Sussex, in southern England.More importantly , Piltdown Man, whom they named Eoanthroopus Dawsoni, or ‘ Dawson’s early man ‘, was something quite special:it was the long-sought missing link- the common ancestor of both man and ape!

What exactly did these remains consist of? There were small fragments from the top of a human-like skull and a strongly discoloured jawbone. The latter was obviously from an ape, but it had one remarkable characteristic: the molars were worn in a way that could only be compared to the grinding of a human jaw. However, the critical portion of the joint that would confirm that the skull and jaw belonged together was missing. Thus, in order to complete the head, researchers had to imagine how the missing pieces might fit together. Consequently, they had either to make the jaw more human or the skull more primitive.

Free of doubt?

Faced with the need for this type of reconstruction, many expressed doubts that the remains were genuine. But the critical voices were silenced by new findings. Over the following three years, Dawson found more teeth, bones and tools. In 1915, he announced the discovery ofteeth and skull fragments of a second human at Piltdown, on a site 3km from the original findings.

The new finds seemed to banish all doubts about whether or not Piltdown Man was a genuine fossil hominid. However, discoveries made elsewhere by anthropologists quickly cast a shadow over Eoanthropus Dawsoni. The remains of fossil hominids found in Europe and Asia, and especially in Africa, had many things in common, but none of these looked at all like their British contemporary.

Who was responsible?

For a long time,the British Museum refused access to Piltdown fossils for the purposes of comparison. However, its attitude had changed by 1949, and the remains were subjected to a fluorine test, X-ray analysis and isotope markings. The tests showed that the bones were not those of a fossil hominid at all. The skull fragments were those of a modern man – admittedly a few hundred years old – while the jaw belonged to an orang-utan. It had simply been coloured and the teeth filed down.

But who cooked up the swindle? Suspicion fell on the excavators, particularly Dawson. As an amateur archaeologist, he had access to fossils, and the discovery of Piltdown Man had the potential to make him a noted scientist. Nevertheless, nothing was ever proven against him, and the motives of the others involved remain unclear.