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Skulduggery in the Museum: Remnants of Piltdown Man in the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy

Skulduggery in the Museum: Remnants of Piltdown Man in the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy

Skulduggery in the museum Remnants of in the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology Rohan Long

‘Piltdown Man’ was the name given Almost immediately, suspicion decades. In 1953, after years of to a handful of fragments found arose around Piltdown Man’s debate, Eoanthropus was conclusively at a site in East , England, in authenticity. For example, David shown to be a fraud. The fossil had 1912. The , quickly identified Waterston, a professor of anatomy at been manufactured by combining as being from a prehistoric , the University of London, wrote to elements of a human and a were named Eoanthropus dawsoni: in November 1913, stating modified jaw, and its the genus Eoanthropus meaning ‘dawn forthrightly that the Piltdown jaw discovery entirely fabricated. The man’, while the species name honours was indistinguishable from that culprit was Dawson, who has now the discoverer of the fossils, amateur of a , while the skull been shown to have been responsible archaeologist (1864– fragments were undoubtedly human; for at least 38 archaeological and 1916). Despite the fossil assemblage attributing them all to the same palaeontological forgeries.2 Piltdown comprising merely skull fragments individual was akin to ‘articulat[ing] Man was his masterpiece. and a jawbone with a few teeth, the a chimpanzee foot with the bones The repercussions of the hoax were find attracted huge attention from of an essentially human thigh and widespread, and evidence of it can both the scientific community and the leg’.1 Piltdown Man confounded the still be found in museum collections general public, becoming one of the scientific establishment and derailed around the world. The Harry Brookes most famous fossil finds of all time. the study of human for Allen Museum of Anatomy and The fossils exhibited characteristics of both and apes, suggesting the possibility that this was the ‘missing link’ that anthropologists had theorised but not yet found. Piltdown Man was particularly attractive to the London-based scientific establishment, as its discovery suggested that humankind had originated in Britain. Prehistoric hominids were known from other parts of Europe, such as Neander- thals, which were first discovered in Germany in 1856. Eoanthropus provided an irresistible opportunity to place Britain at the forefront of the exciting new field of palaeoanthropology—the study of prehistoric humans.

Rohan Long Remnants of Piltdown Man 3 Previous page: John Cooke, A discussion of the Piltdown skull, 1915, oil on canvas, 183 × 224 cm. Geological Society of London, Portrait and Bust Collection. The figures depicted are (from left to right) Frank Barlow, Arthur Swayne Underwood (seated), , (seated), William Plane Pycraft (seated), Charles Dawson, Arthur Smith Woodward and Edwin Lankester (seated). The object of interest is a plaster model of the reconstructed Eoanthropus skull.

Pathology at the University of and ) was incorrect. He Charles Dawson’s first point of Melbourne has many specimens proposed that humans had evolved contact after the Eoanthropus related to palaeoanthropology. from tarsiers—small, arboreal, large- ‘discovery’ was Arthur Smith Twentieth-century figures from eyed insectivores from south-east Woodward, palaeontologist at the Anatomy Department, such as Asia, with uncertain affinities to London’s (now eugenicist Richard Berry (1867–1962) other primates. Wood Jones based the Natural History Museum), who and his successor, Frederic Wood his arguments on meticulous studies worked as keeper of from Jones (1879–1954), were interested in of human and animal anatomy. 1901 to 1924. After Woodward , and this is reflected Although Piltdown Man would became involved, all subsequent in the collections. Berry’s research seem pertinent to his pet theory, he finds from Piltdown were received focus was not , but, as a never paid it much attention, as the and accessioned by the British proponent of the early 20th-century remains were too fragmentary for Museum. Woodward became the phrenology revival, he was fixated his style of exhaustive anatomical principal researcher of Eoanthropus, on and brains. In 1939, Berry study. In 1916 Wood Jones noted and he tightly restricted access to referred to the ‘half a million years’– this incompleteness while discussing the specimens. The original bones old Piltdown finds as an excellent the origins of humans, saying, ‘It is were jealously guarded; visiting example of the astonishing durability in the grades of evolution of the foot researchers could view them, but of the human skull. He also cited the that the stages of the missing link were not permitted to touch. This practice of making brain casts from will be most plainly presented to the policy almost certainly contributed the skull reconstructions.3 future palaeontologist, when time to the hoax’s succeeding for so long. Although Piltdown was outside and chance shall have discovered the In the first half of 1913, Harry Brookes Allen’s study area of feet of such forms as Pithecanthropus researchers’ demands for access to pathology, the museum’s namesake and Eoanthropus’.5 He made a similar the Piltdown material was very was also abreast of the Piltdown comment on the incompleteness high. In response, Frank Barlow, discoveries, and mentioned them of the Piltdown material in his a technical assistant and model- briefly in his annual lecture to the 1929 book Man’s place among the maker at the British Museum, Medical Students Society in 1913.4 mammals.6 produced casts of the fossil Frederic Wood Jones, head of the Three models derived from the fragments and skull, and brain Anatomy Department from 1930 Piltdown Man hoax have been reconstructions.7 Barlow was to 1937, spent most of his career preserved in the Harry Brookes a skilled worker and his casts championing a controversial—and Allen Museum collections: a skull were praised at the time for their wrong—hypothesis of human reconstruction, a brain reconstruction accuracy. But even accurate casts origins. He argued that the (endocranial cast), and a comparative omit significant (and incriminating) commonly accepted idea that model of primate jaw bones. details that are present on original humans were most closely allied to specimens, such as colour, and fine great apes (, gorillas, B abrasions on the teeth.

4 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 23, December 2018 R.F. Damon & Co. (England), plaster cast of Eoanthropus skull, c. 1914–53 (based on A.S. Woodward’s 1914 reconstruction), plaster and paint, 20.0 × 16.0 × 23.5 cm. 516-500337, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, University of Melbourne. Photograph by Paul Burston.

Barlow was a partner in R.F. Cast(s) Cat No Coloured Uncoloured Damon & Co. of Weymouth, which Cranial fragments (4) 428 £2.2.0 £1.10.0 distributed the casts commercially. The company sent out a catalogue to Right ramus of 429 1.10.0 12.0 interested researchers with a list of Restoration of whole skull 430 5.0.0 3.10.0 available casts and their prices:8 Endocranial cast 431 1.5.0 15.0 Flint implements (6) 432 2.10.0 1.0.0

Rohan Long Remnants of Piltdown Man 5 Illustration from pamphlet by , revised by George Pinkley and William King Gregory, The Hall of the Age of Man in the American Museum, New York: American Museum of Natural History, 7th edn, 1938, showing a display in the American Museum of Natural History. Piltdown Man is skull no. 5, in the column.

According to records from Woodward presented his more, in 1913 and 1914.13 The online museum databases, models reconstruction at the Geological specimen in the Harry Brookes Allen of Piltdown material were being Society in London on 18 December Museum is a copy of Woodward’s sold by R.F. Damon & Co. until at 1912. While accepting that the fossil 1914 reconstruction. least 1939.9 It is likely that the skull fragments were genuine, several Wood Jones’ complaint about and brain reconstructions in the of his peers disputed the accuracy the incompleteness of the Piltdown Harry Brookes Allen Museum were of the restoration. Anatomist and fossils was echoed by many other produced by Damon and bought by anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith put scientists, particularly regarding staff in the Anatomy Department at forward an alternative, which resulted the reconstruction of the skull. In some time after 1914.10 The origin of in a skull that looked essentially a pamphlet written for visitors to the comparative jaw mount, however, human, rather than like a ‘missing the anthropological gallery of the is still unknown. link’. Woodward continued revising American Museum of Natural his reconstructions as new Piltdown History in New York, palaeontologist The skull reconstruction material emerged, producing two Henry Fairfield Osborn opined: The skull reconstruction (pictured on page 5) is made of plaster and has differently coloured sections indicating the assumed position of the fossil fragments. The dark-brown sections represent the discovered bones, the light-brown sections represent mirror images of those bones on the opposite side of the skull, and the white section represents areas of the skull for which no material was found. At some point in its history, the model has been sawn in two, possibly with the intent of mounting on a board.11 The specimen has two inscriptions, both reading ‘Piltdown Smith-Woodward’ [sic], on the forehead and chin, although this has subsequently been painted over. They are written with black pen in capital letters in what is presumed to be Wood Jones’ hand.12

6 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 23, December 2018 R.F. Damon & Co., plaster cast of Eoanthropus brain, c. 1913–53, based on A.S. Woodward’s skull reconstruction, plaster and paint, 13 × 15 × 18 cm. 516- 500429, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, University of Melbourne. Photograph by Paul Burston.

The fact remains that the was on display in the galleries of skull reconstruction. Due to the recovered fragments have been the American Museum of National skull’s incompleteness, differently insufficient for a satisfactory and History until at least 1938. It was coloured sections on the brain cast entirely acceptable restoration featured on a family tree (pictured show the presence or absence of of the skull. In the several opposite) with other (legitimate) surrounding bone. As with the skull reconstructions by eminent primate fossils, occupying a branch just reconstruction, it is inscribed in black scientists the cranial capacity below modern humans and separate pen, in what looks like the same (which serves as an index for brain from and hand: ‘Piltdown Smith-Woodward’ size) varied between 1070 and (Homo neanderthalensis). [sic]. 1500 cubic centimetres, although The Australian-British anatomist this range was later reduced The brain reconstruction Grafton Elliot Smith disagreed with to about 1200 to 1400 cubic (endocranial cast) this reconstruction and produced an centimetres by the scientists The Harry Brookes Allen Museum alternative endocranial cast, which concerned.14 also holds a speculative plaster cast he reproduced as a diagram in a of Eoanthropus’s brain (pictured letter to Nature in 1913.15 Smith Osborn’s criticism notwithstanding, below). This brain model was made worked on detailed reconstructions of an Eoanthropus skull reconstruction by creating an internal cast of the Eoanthropus’s brain and presented an

Rohan Long Remnants of Piltdown Man 7 Unknown maker, mounted comparative model of casts of primate lower jaws, c. 1913–53, plaster, wood and paint; 50.5 × 20.5 × 9.0 cm. 516-500130, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, University of Melbourne. Labelled from top down as chimpanzee, Piltdown Man, Heidelberg Man, Man, modern man. Photograph by Paul Burston.

account to the Royal Society in 1914, Man jaw, indicating the missing although he never published it. Just sections of the original fossil jaw. before his death, Woodward described An almost identical comparative the difficulties he had experienced in sequence, albeit without the reconciling the skull fragments into a Neanderthal jaw, is presented as a plausible braincase, and wondered, in diagram in Woodward’s 1948 popular an almost despondent tone, whether account of the Piltdown discoveries, perhaps similar difficulties had The earliest Englishman. prevented Smith from publishing his Students of anthropology at the own reconstruction.16 time would have been shown an The brain of Piltdown Man was at orderly progression of morphological the centre of a debate on early human change, with the chin becoming less development. At the time, many sloping and the canine teeth reducing scientists believed that a large brain in size. This sequence of the changing evolved early in the history of Homo shape of hominid jaws is very neat sapiens. The primitive characteristics and linear, and reflects the assumption of the jaw of Eoanthropus, combined that progress from apes to bipedal, with the skull capacity of a modern intelligent humans was inevitable. human, confirmed their favoured This is why the Piltdown Man hypothesis and added to the allure of hoax worked so well: contemporary the hoax. scientists expected to see a simple, linear pattern of change, and the The comparative jaw mount faked jaw was designed to fit these Another collection item dating from expectations perfectly. this era is a plaque comparing the But fossil discoveries made through- jaws of various human species and a out the second half of the 20th century chimpanzee. It comprises five plaster demonstrated that the human family casts of primate jaw bones mounted tree is complex and branching. There on a wooden board: chimpanzee is no clear line of progress from ape- (Pan troglodytes), Piltdown like ancestors to modern humans. Man, Heidelberg Man (Homo Instead, the fossils revealed many heidelbergensis), Neanderthal Man species of hominids, with a mosaic of (Homo neanderthalensis) and modern primitive and modern features, often human (Homo sapiens). As with the with multiple species coexisting. other models, there are areas of light and dark shading on the Piltdown B

8 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 23, December 2018 For the scientists involved, the Rohan Long is the curator of the Harry Brookes 12 Wood Jones illustrated many of his own Piltdown Man fiasco was deeply Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology at the books, and sometimes signed them with his University of Melbourne. You can find him on name in capital letters. A simple comparison embarrassing. Over the course of the Twitter @zoologyrohan. can be made between the two, particularly 20th century, there was an explosion the letter sequence ‘WOOD’, which is shared in the discovery of prehistoric human by both names. If the labels on the models 1 David Waterston, ‘The Piltdown mandible’, fossils, particularly in Asia and Africa. were written by Wood Jones, the latest year in Nature, vol. 92, no. 2298, 13 November 1913, which they were acquired is probably 1937. It became increasingly awkward to p. 319. 13 After Dawson’s death in 1916, no further fit Piltdown Man into the newly 2 Miles Russell, Piltdown Man: The secret life material was found at Piltdown, despite emerging picture of human evolution. of Charles Dawson & the world’s greatest Woodward excavating the site sporadically for archaeological hoax, Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2003. the next two decades. Nobody mourned Eoanthropus, and 3 Richard J.A. Berry, Your brain and its story, 14 Henry Fairfield Osborn, revised by George the scientific community was glad to London: Oxford University Press, 1939. Pinkley and William King Gregory, The Hall move on. 4 Harry Brookes Allen, ‘Some problems of of the Age of Man in the American Museum, medical training’, Australian Medical Journal, The plaster casts of the New York: American Museum of Natural 20 September 1913, pp. 1217–20. Note that History, 7th edn, 1938, p. 22 (via HathiTrust reconstructed skull created the Allen was not referring to any problems with Digital Library, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/ illusion that Eoanthropus was a the Piltdown finds; he accepted them at face mdp.39015081133822, viewed 20 November serious scientific specimen, rather value and was using them as an example of 2018). unpredictable discoveries. 15 Grafton Elliot Smith, ‘The Piltdown skull than a handful of human skull 5 Frederic Wood Jones, Arboreal man, London: and brain cast’, Nature, vol. 92, no. 2298, and orangutan jaw fragments. It is E. Arnold, 1916. 13 November 1913, p. 318. somewhat fitting that these casts 6 Frederic Wood Jones, Man’s place among the 16 Arthur Smith Woodward, ‘Foreword’, in mammals, London: E. Arnold, 1929. can still be found in anthropological The earliest Englishman, London: Watts, 1948. 7 John Evangelist Walsh, Unravelling Piltdown: Woodward started writing this book shortly collections from the early The science fraud of the century and its solution, after the Piltdown discoveries were made, 20th century, whereas the original New York: Random House, 1996. but put it aside in favour of technical work. Piltdown specimens themselves have, 8 Table reproduced from Frank Spencer, His eyesight deteriorated during his final The Piltdown papers, 1908–1955: The years and put an end to research. He dictated unsurprisingly, rarely been displayed correspondence and other documents relating the remainder of the book to his wife, Maud 17 since their debunking in 1953. to the Piltdown forgery, London and Oxford: Woodward, and ‘the story grew until the last To those of us from later Natural History Museum Publications, Oxford word was written the day before he died’, University Press, 1990. generations, the story of Piltdown in 1944. 9 See, for example, Science Museum Group, 17 Natural History Museum, Piltdown Man: The Man seems fantastic, almost Cast of skull of Piltdown Man, plaster, with context and exposure of a scientific forgery, The unbelievable. These plaster casts and mandible, http://collection.sciencemuseum.org. Internet Archive, 2003, https://web.archive. models enable us to connect with this uk/objects/co77159/cast-of-skull-of-piltdown- org/web/20031107040917/http://www.nhm. man-plaster-with-mandi-skulls. ac.uk:80/museum/tempexhib/piltdown/ era in an intense and evocative way. 10 See next section: the Harry Brookes (viewed 14 September 2018). In 2003, to mark They reinforce the value of museum Allen skull is a copy of Woodward’s 1914 the 50th anniversary of the forgery’s exposure, collections and the unique power of reconstruction. the Piltdown bones were put on display in object-based learning. 11 There are several objects in the collection, London’s Natural History Museum for the made by Wood Jones, of animal skulls halved first time since 1953. Even then, they were down the middle and mounted sideways on exhibited for only three months before being boards as wall displays. put back into storage.

Rohan Long Remnants of Piltdown Man 9

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