23 November 1953: Scientists pronounce the jaw and eyetooth found in 1912 and supposedly evidence of an early human species to be ‘deliberate fakes’
The skull which was found at Piltdown in Sussex 40 years ago has lost some of its importance as a relic of primitive man, but it can still cause a considerable flutter among scientists and laymen who take a natural interest in their own ancestors. Three scientists, after careful investigation, now pronounce its jaw and eyetooth to be “deliberate fakes”; but this, though the strongest, is only the latest blow to Piltdown Man’s pre-eminence. New discoveries and new methods had already brought him down a peg. A few years ago it was found possible by means untried till then to get a rough estimate of the age of fossil skulls: this showed that the Piltdown skull was by no means as old as some others, notably the one found at Swanscombe. The discoverer of the Swanscombe skull, Mr AT Marston, has, by the way, steadfastly maintained that the Piltdown skull and jaw could not possibly belong to the same individual. He was much criticised but is now vindicated; and his Swanscombe skull now takes the place which (as it turns out) Piltdown Man had usurped. But the general view of human evolution may not be much affected, since palaeontologists have all along been troubled by the contradictions in the Piltdown find and have mostly considered it an aberrant form.
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