Hoax!

The Piltdown Hoax.

          It all started in the early 1900's. In the year 1912, in a small village of Piltdown, amateur archaeologist, Charles Dawson, was digging in a gravel pit and claimed that he found a piece of ancient human skull. After his discovery he invited a leading English geologist Arthur Woodward and a french paleontologist Father Pier, to join him with his work.  Later Dawson claim to have found more fossils this one seemed like a jaw bone, apparently from the same skull. The jaw appeared to be an ape jaw. This was truly shocking to the people. There human remains found in neighboring countries such as France, but there had never been anything found in England. The discovery of various fossils made people believe that it was all true. People who didn't think it was true were afraid to say anything against it. The pieces found by Dawson and his colleagues were kept under a lock and a key in a museum. It seemed like the missing link between humans and apes was found. This appeared to be solid evidence (at the time) that there was human life which evolved.
     But it was not very long before this great discovery was put in question. There were more fossils being discovered in such places as Asia and other places, and these fossils resembled human remains far more than Dawson's discoveries. But since Dawson's discoveries were kept under tight security it lacked much investigation which it needed to be verified. But the turning point came after WWII. In 1949 scientists were exposed to better and more advanced technology. They could measure the fluorine content of the object to date it. In 1949 that is what they did to the jaw bone which Dawson belonged to an ancient human skull. They found that the remains were rather young. It made no sense to have fossils so young, because ancient human remains should not be young, but this remain was less than a 100 years old. They found that the staining on the fossils was superficial, the artifacts were stained as well and that there was material that was cut using a steel knife. After further examination scientists also found that there was evidence that fossils were filed out, the teeth were filed down to fit a certain shape, there were scratches all over, it was declared that the remain belonged to a female orangutan. All evidence point to one conclusion that someone had faked this whole “discovery” and the prime suspect was Charles Dawson, who initially had claimed to have found these fossils.
       Although one can claim that Dawson is only human, that he made an innocent mistake. Others could claim that he had an inferior motive to gain scientific prestige. But lets just take the first perspective to mind. Dawson was a human being and we as human beings are capable of doing more wrong than right. A scientist belongs to the same homo sapien species as any other human being. Their profession does not exclude, or teach them how to error less, it is all innate. Mistakes are made all the time, even by the most experts, or the most witty ones. Making mistakes is a factor that can not be removed because it is innately within every person. Yes some mistakes have great consequences or can be cause great controversies (as in Dawson's case), but it is human nature to make mistakes. Either someone is working in a science lab or in a law office, both are bound to make mistakes. It would be nice to take this factor out of science because that would deliver more consistent results, it is a very unrealistic demand. But considering all the details from this particular case, I have learned to look deeper into any scientific claims made by anyone. Looking at more than one perspective would probably be a better to learn about the truth. Science is objective so the observer and or learner must be objective to get the best out of science.