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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Controversial knowledge > Hoaxes & deceptions
Piltdown. Even today the name sends a shiver down the collective
spine of the scientific community, for this was the most dramatic
and daring fraud ever perpetrated upon the world of science and
academia. Between 1908 and 1912, a series of amazing discoveries
relating to what appeared to be the earliest human were made close
to the little village of Piltdown in Sussex. These remains belonged
to the developmental 'missing link' between man and ape. The basic
principles of evolution, first propounded by Charles Darwin some
fifty years before, now appeared as indisputable fact. The
Manchester Guardian ran the first headline: 'THE EARLIEST MAN?:
REMARKABLE DISCOVERY IN SUSSEX. A SKULL MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD' it
screamed, adding that the discovery was 'one of the most important
of our time'. The news spread quickly around the world, with many
voicing their eagerness to examine the find. Few archaeological
discoveries have the capacity to be front-page news twice over, but
'Piltdown Man' is a rare exception. Forty-one years after he first
became famous, the 'Earliest Englishman' was again hot news. It was
late November 1953, and the world was about to discover that
Piltdown Man had been a hoax. Not just any hoax mind, the London
Star declared it to be 'THE BIGGEST SCIENTIFIC HOAX OF THE
CENTURY'.
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