Piltdown Man, 1913
- 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).