The Piltdown Man hoax began in 1912, when Charles Dawson claimed to have discovered fossils belonging to a "missing link" between man and ape. For decades it was the subject of heated debate among paleontologists. It wasn't until the early 1950s that the hoax was revealed, though it continued to be a mystery as to the identity of the hoaxer. This book traces the story with new research from the archives of the British Museum (Natural History) to find an answer.
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In 1913 amateur fossil hunter and archaeologist Charles Dawson found in a gravel pit the cranium and jaw of an entirely new species of humanoid, which became known as Piltdown man, which caused headlines worldwide as the missing link between man and ape. In 1952, it was exposed as a hoax. With eight pages of photos, this book is a wonderful detective story, and the first examination the convincingly fingers the perpetrator.
Piltdown. Even today the name sends a shiver down the collective spine of the scientific community, for this was the most dramatic and daring fraud ever perpetrated upon the world of science and academia. Between 1908 and 1912, a series of amazing discoveries relating to what appeared to be the earliest human were made close to the little village of Piltdown in Sussex. These remains belonged to the developmental 'missing link' between man and ape. The basic principles of evolution, first propounded by Charles Darwin some fifty years before, now appeared as indisputable fact. The Manchester Guardian ran the first headline: 'THE EARLIEST MAN?: REMARKABLE DISCOVERY IN SUSSEX. A SKULL MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD' it screamed, adding that the discovery was 'one of the most important of our time'. The news spread quickly around the world, with many voicing their eagerness to examine the find. Few archaeological discoveries have the capacity to be front-page news twice over, but 'Piltdown Man' is a rare exception. Forty-one years after he first became famous, the 'Earliest Englishman' was again hot news. It was late November 1953, and the world was about to discover that Piltdown Man had been a hoax. Not just any hoax mind, the London Star declared it to be 'THE BIGGEST SCIENTIFIC HOAX OF THE CENTURY'.
The human and animal remains discovered almost 100 years ago at Piltdown, near Lewes in Sussex were at the time hailed as the "missing link" between ape and man. It was not until 1953 that modern analysis conclusively revealed an ingenious hoax. The perpetrator was almost certainly the antiquarian excavator Charles Dawson who, as Miles Russell shows, was responsible for 16 other archaeological forgeries during his lifetime.
"Scientific Investigation of Copies, Fakes and Forgeries is a comprehensive guide to the technical and scientific study of the authenticity of a wide range of antiquities and artworks. It is the first book to provide a full survey of the subject of forgery from a scientific basis, examining a wide range of materials and techniques." "The demand for copies, fakes and forgeries is driven by rising prices in an international marketplace. The book examines the available new technologies and ever more sophisticated forging techniques, looking at production and distribution of fraudulent artworks. The subject is exemplified by numerous internationally based case studies, some turning out not to be as conclusive as is sometimes believed." "The book is aimed at those who need to understand the available approaches to and methods of scientific and technical authentication, be they curator, collector, conservator or scientist." --Book Jacket.
'Lively, thought-provoking and consistently surprising. Lydia Pyne is the real deal.' Ed Yong, author of New York Times bestseller I Contain Multitudes Does an authentic Andy Warhol painting need to be painted by Andy Warhol? Why do audiences feel outraged when they find out that scenes from their beloved blockbuster documentaries are staged? Can people move past assuming that a diamond grown in a lab is a fake? What happens when a forged painting or manuscript becomes more valuable than its original? This is a book about genuine fakes – the curious and complex objects that provoke these very sorts of questions. Genuine fakes fall into the space between things that are real and things that are not; whether or not we think that those things are authentic is a matter of perspective. Unsurprisingly, the world is full of genuine fakes – full of things that defy simple categorisation. From stories of audacious forgeries to feats of technological innovation, historian Lydia Pyne explores how the authenticity of eight genuine fakes depends on their unique combinations of history, science and culture. The stories of art forgeries, fake fossils, nature documentaries, synthetic flavours, museum exhibits, Maya codices and Palaeolithic replicas show that genuine fakes are both complicated and change over time. Drawing from historical archives, interviews, museum exhibits and science fiction as well as her own research, Pyne brings each genuine fake to life through unexpected and often outrageous stories. Genuine Fakes will make readers think about all the unreal things they encounter in their daily lives, and why they invoke the reactions – surprise, wonder, understanding or annoyance – that they do.
This textbook provides a collection of case studies in paleoanthropology demonstrating the method and limitations of science. These cases introduce the reader to various problems and illustrate how they have been addressed historically. The various topics selected represent important corrections in the field, some critical breakthroughs, models of good reasoning and experimental design, and important ideas emerging from normal science.
Piltdown was an archaeological site in Sussex where in 1908 and 1912, human, ape and other mammal fossils were found together. Widely accepted as a creature who had a human cranium and an ape's jaw, the Piltdown 'Man' was however exposed as a fraud in 1953. Weiner is one of the scientists who discovered the fraud, this is his account of how he came to uncover it, and he also discusses the probable authorship of one of the greatest hoaxes of our time.
