Piltdown Man, 1913

  1. 45.  Dawson, Charles (1864-1916);
          Woodward, Arthur Smith (1864-1944).
     
    “On the discovery of a Palaeolithic human skull and mandible in a flint-bearing gravel overlying the Wealden (Hastings beds) at Piltdown, Fletching (Sussex).” Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 1913, 69:117-151

Charles Dawson was an amateur archaeologist who found several skull fragments, a piece of a jaw, and a canine tooth at a gravel pit in Piltdown, England, in 1912.  He called in an expert, Arthur Smith Woodward, who confirmed that these were the remains of a prehistoric human, who was consequently named Eoanthropus dawsonii--Dawson’s “dawn man”.  There was no immediate suspicion that Piltdown man might be a hoax.

The plate depicts one of the skull fragments at the top (three different views) and the jaw segment at the bottom (4 views).