Books - Piltdown

Product Description:
For decades the remains of fossils found in Piltdown, England were believed to come from a 'missing link,' a creature with a human cranium and an ape's jaw. Dr. Weiner shows how he discovered the truth about these remains, and went on to expose one of the world's greatest scientific frauds.

Product Description:
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.



Customer Review: The Final Answer:
In his study of the Piltdown Hoax John Evangelist Walsh has brought something to the table that most other books lack, common sense. He has coupled excellent research with basic logic to guide us through the intricacies and convolutions of this fascinating case. With no ax to grind he diligently follows where the facts lead. And I, at least, have been unable to break the logic of his answer.

Written in a highly readable style this book will easily guide you through one of archeology's most fascinating chapters. This is the definitive book on the Piltdown Hoax. Read it and you will know who the hoaxer was.


Customer Review: Engrossing, and extremely well written:
A fascinating study of the Piltdown tragedy. I approached the book because I wanted to confirm the innocence of Teilhard de Chardin as regards the whole affair, and indeed Walsh clears Teilhard completely to my satisfaction. But I found myself swept up by Walsh's account of this world famous hoax, and the people who were the first victims of it. It would make a terrific film. I recommend the book as a great read, and to anyone curious about any level of the famous incident. This is a place where the criminologist, the anthropologist and the historian -- and the psychologist -- come together. Simply superb.

Customer Review: Court's in recess:
Walsh brings well-honed historical skills to this narrative of the famous Piltdown mystery. Found in a gravel pit in 1912, the skullcap and jaw turned paleoanthropology into a ferocious battleground for many years. Reputations were won and lost over interpreting the artefacts in the ensuing years. Walsh carefully outlines the personalities and the sequence of events leading to the finds. He describes how reluctantly many scholars accepted the original interpretations, until a "second Piltdown" overcame their misgivings.

Walsh's chapter "Challenging the Skull" is an excellent summation of the level of knowledge available at the time. The key issue was the "ape-like" jaw adorned with a significant canine tooth, also found at the site. Several scholars argued that such a tooth precluded the evidence of human chewing wear seen on the jaw's molars. The second "find" swept away these contentions, although the chewing mechanism was never worked out. Arthur Smith Woodward gave Piltdown the appellation Eoanthropus dawsonii honouring the finder of the skull. It became the centre of British anthropological ideas for many years.

In 1953, however, fresh doubts arose concerning Piltdown. Walsh leaps the intervening years abruptly to introduce Joseph Weiner. Weiner, disturbed by the lack of supportive data and the results of new dating technology began to delve more deeply into establishing whether the jaw and skull were truly from one individual. Close inspection revealed the tooth "wear" was the result of filing, not chewing! After four decades, Piltdown was exposed as a fraud.

Walsh examines the cases against the primary figures involved in the find and the campaign to establish its primacy in the anthropological scene. Charles Dawson, the original finder is first exonerated as being "too honest" for such an act. Weiner, who originally investigated Dawson, couldn't obtain more than circumstantial evidence. Walsh continues by recounting the several provoking assessments of other participants. He finds the most compelling Stephen J. Gould's implication that the French priest, Teilhard de Chardin was the perpetrator. Of all Gould's assaults on various scientific figures over the years, this one has always seemed the least plausible. Walsh also finds it unconvincing, criticizing the use of evidence or its lack. He critiques other accusations in the same way. Yet, when he finally settles back on Dawson, his own case is built on surmise and supposition. He is unable to actually demonstrate Dawson perpetrated the fraud. Walsh's case is built on past events and some shady dealings on Dawson's part. Of Piltdown, however, Walsh offers no solid evidence. The most significant aspect of his case is his failure to provide motivation. He builds a flimsy foundation of sibling rivalry, plausible, but unsubstantiated.

The glaring omission in this book is Walsh's failure to place Piltdown in its anthropological context. While the deception circumstances and his survey of those accused of it make compelling reading, the real mystery is why such figures as Woodward and Keith clung to Piltdown's morphology in the face of contradictory evidence. The real challenge to Piltdown came from South Africa with Raymond Dart's find of the Taung Child in 1924. Taung's discovery refuted Piltdown's large brain capacity and the belief that modern humans evolved in Asia or Europe. Woodward fought this analysis for years, vigorously defending his
"Earliest Englishman" against the African challenge. Woodward's ideal early man must be British. While Walsh's "detective story" makes compelling reading, his failure to provide in-depth motivation for anyone involved, even Dawson, still leaves too many questions unanswered. Given the number of tarnished reputations the affair produced, this is an unfortunate lapse. While Walsh has built a strong case, the jury remains unconvinced.

Customer Review: A wolf in sheep's clothing:
In his Prologue, Walsh forcibly states: "The Piltdown fraud was nothing short of despicable, an ugly trick played by a warped and unscrupulous mind on unsuspecting scholars." He spends the remainder of the book sifting through evidence, eliminating suspects and finally exposing the forger and the web of deceit he wove. It is not surprising that among scientists (who must trust one another's honesty in order to advance the standing of knowledge), someone skilled at deception would pose a serious risk to the scientific method? And sure enough, the guilty party did not start with Piltdown, but had a long strng of fraudulent discoveries and plagarisms. Is it further any surprise that the guilty party was a lawyer?

I recommend this book highly to anyone who is interested in science or historical crime.

Customer Review: Unputdownable:
This book is a treat. The sheer common sense and respect for the truth blaze through it. I was impressed by the depth of research and the quality of the analysis. I can't recommend it too highly. I have read other books on this subject but have found their arguments unconvincing. Very highly recommended.

Product Description:
On the night of December 18, 1912, a packed meeting of the Geological Society of London listened to Charles Dawson, a rural lawyer and an amateur geologist, make an exciting announcement: he had found evolution's missing link in an old gravel pit near Piltdown Common. Together with Arthur Smith Woodward, Keeper of Geology at the British Museum and a noted authority on prehistoric archaeology, Dawson had discovered the shattered remnants of a thick, human-like skull together with a simian jaw--the fossils of a strange creature halfway between apes and human beings. Though debates raged over reconstructing Piltdown Man from these remains, few doubted their authenticity--and it was not until forty years later that further tests proved they were an elaborate fake.
Written by anthropologist Frank Spencer, Piltdown tells the story of this incredible hoax, the greatest forgery in the history of modern science. Spencer begins by taking us back to the debates in Edwardian Britain over the antiquity of Homo sapiens and the public excitement over the search for the missing link between apes and human beings. He recounts Dawson's initial "discovery" of the shattered skull, the further dramatic finds made with Woodward in the midst of the furious scientific debate over Piltdown Man, and the great public argument between Woodward and Arthur Keith over the reconstruction of the head (Keith, an anatomist and Conservator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, won fame by promoting his own theory of a very human-like version of the Piltdown skull). Spencer also traces the increasing confusion and doubt over Piltdown Man as later archaeological discoveries were made in Africa and China: the Piltdown Man didn't seem to fit the emerging picture of human evolution, and an ever-larger number of scientists claimed that the jaw did not belong with the skull. Finally, he captures the dramatic uncovering of the hoax, closely following anthropologist Joseph Weiner's fascinating investigation in 1953. Weiner--troubled by the inconsistencies of Piltdown Man--revealed that the remains consisted of a modern human skull and the jaw of an orangutan, treated with chemicals to simulate great age and planted at the Piltdown site.
Yet the question of who perpetrated the forgery has remained to the present day. Certainly Dawson, a rural solicitor who craved a great scientific reputation, was intimately involved. But who provided the tremendous expertise behind the hoax, and why would such a learned authority risk his career on a highly public fake? Was it Woodward, the great archaeologist most closely associated with the find? Keith, the prominent anatomist? Or was it Teilhard de Chardin, the French priest who found a critical tooth at the site? Spencer draws on original documents from the archives of the British Museum and other sources to identify the missing conspirator, in a startling and convincing revelation. Compelling and authoritative, Piltdown offers a gripping account of this great hoax and the final word on one of the deepest mysteries of modern science.



Customer Review: A Fine, Scientific "Whodunit?":
In 1912, Cahrles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward "discovered" what was then claimed to be the missing link in human evolution at site known as Piltdown. What follows represents the unravelling of one of the greatest scientific forgery the world had ever seen.

Spencer's work represents first the challenge to explain how Piltdown Man (eoanthropos dawsoni) came to be regarded as the missing link in human evolution. Then, the challenge came to be how the scientific community held onto Piltdown Man despite the conflicting scientific evidence found in other parts of the globe. Finally, how the investigation of Weiner, Le Gros Clark and Oakley in 1953 exposed the fact that Piltdown Man was an elaborate and meticulous fraud.

From there, Spencer then explores the suspects and possible motives of the suspects of this most elaborate forgery. Spencer runs the gamut of suspects before indicating his belief in the collaborative efforts of Charles Dawson and Arthur Kent. Like any good detective, Spencer employs the requirement that the perpetrator(s) of this fraud must have had both motive and opportunity. Unfortunately we will likely never know the true identities of the perpetrators.

In the end, the invesitgation in 1953 revealed that the Piltdown skull was nothing more than a human skull and an unrelated lower jawbone of an ape. The fact that in 1912, this discovery was heralded in the scientific community as the missing link reflects both on the sophistication of the forgeries and the desire by many to have the mssing link be found in England. Spencer explains all with great scientific detail coupled with a touch of panache. All in all, highly enjoyable.

Product Description:
The fascinating story of an archaeological hoaxer.

Product Description:
A novelistic exploration of the Piltdown hoax uses well-researched historical documentation to show how an Edwardian amateur archaeologist, conspiring with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and others, fooled the scientific community into accepting a bogus ""caveman.""

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The “Gale Encyclopedia of Science� is written at a level somewhere between the introductory sources and the highly technical texts currently available. This six-volume set covers all major areas of science and engineering, as well as mathematics and the medical and health sciences, while providing a comprehensive overview of current scientific knowledge and technology. Alphabetically arranged entries provide a user-friendly format that makes the broad scope of information easy to access and decipher. Entries typically describe scientific concepts, provide overviews of scientific areas and, in some cases, define terms.

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This digital document is an article from UXL Complete Life Science Resource, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. The length of the article is 639 words. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Features alphabetically arranged entries on theories, concepts, and scientific discoveries and developments pertinent to the study of life science in schools today. Also featured is a chronology of discoveries and a report topic section that suggests a range of research topics and experiement ideas.