The triumph of the Dawsonian method

Piltdown Man was the most notable forgery in 20th Century science. It was published in 1913 and the falsification was not uncovered until 1953. The forger was the amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson (1864–1916). Dawson ‘found’ or was present at the discovery of every fragment of Piltdown Man. Few have appreciated Dawson's skill; he did much more than merely provide material that fitted with prevalent theories of human evolution. He chose the type locality on private land, not generally accessible. Dawson was ostracized from the local amateur archaeological community, the group most likely to collect the Piltdown site without supervision. Finds were described by the leading palaeontologist in Britain, A.S. Woodward, whose expertise was in lower vertebrates. The leading palaeoanthropologists in Britain, Arthur Keith and G.E. Smith, mainly worked with casts and wasted energies debating theoretical issues. Yet Dawson's true genius was in presenting British palaeoanthropology with just what it wanted, a large-brained, Pliocene ‘missing link’.