British Museum (Natural History): Department of Palaeontology: Piltdown Man: Records

This series contains correspondence, papers, drawings, photographs and newscuttings relating to the discovery and controversy over the Piltdown skull. Parts of a human skull, mandible and a canine tooth were discovered in Pliocene gravels near Piltdown Common in Sussex by Charles Dawson (1864-1916), an amateur fossil collector, between 1908 and 1912. The specimens, together with associated fossils and implements, were presented to the British Museum (Natural History) in 1913, and were the subject of intense research by, among others, Arthur Smith Woodward (1864-1944), who was Keeper of Geology from 1901 to 1924. In 1949 Kenneth Page Oakley (1911-1981) used chemical tests to show that the skull was not as ancient as the associated fossils, and in 1953 it was demonstrated that the skull, mandible and tooth were fakes. In spite of research and speculation, the identity of the forger has not been proved.

The series is an artificial one, containing papers drawn from the departmental correspondence, the Keeper's miscellaneous files, and the Anthropology correspondence files.

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF PAL/116). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 116.

Further materials relating to the Piltdown affair are held in the papers of J S Werner in the Palaeontology manuscripts

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