The Piltdown Man: Comments
(most recent posts first)
Alex Boese is certainly wrong when he says that the Piltdown skull (cranium) is 50,000 years old. This age would put in the middle of the Palaeolithic which would surely mean that it wasn t a hoax merely wrongly dated. A Palaeolithic human skull would be a find of some rarity in the UK. My understanding is that in fact it s mediaeval like the jawbone although not exactly contemporary with it. I ve seen dates of around 600 years BP for the cranium.
Lawrence Mayes
Thursday, November 20, 2003 at 03:15:33
Venus Hargreaves, the labourer, did it. This was wellknown to his cronies in the area. Only Ronald Millar (Piltdown author, 1972 & 1998) showed any sympathy for the likes of Venus the working-man. Venus had worked on many such digs for many local archeologists over the years, had picked up more than a few tips, and knew the methods of a few fakers. He pinched the skull in a previous medieval cemetery dig. There were many collectors of exotic wild life in Sussex then. He got the jaw in a similar way. Motive? Old people then could end up in the workhouse when they were thought to be past work. A bit of regular and congenial light digging not far from his house kept Venus in beer money until his death in 1917.
Peter
Tuesday, October 07, 2003 at 00:37:40
Martin Hinton is the culprit of falsifying the Piltdown man and you need to update your site if you haven't figured that out considering it was the evidence was found ten years ago!
chris
Saturday, September 06, 2003 at 13:34:22
Whether it's the Pildown Man or Archeoraptor, arrogant, myopic, atheistic scientists will never learn. I can't help but wonder what scienctific "facts" that are taught in our schools won't be worth the paper they are written on in the next ten years. A little modesty, a little humility and a lot of faith in an all-wise, compassionate Creator would appear to me to be invaluable assets to such ilk.
Aaron M. Davis
Tuesday, August 26, 2003 at 10:19:09
i hate piltdown man it is realy dumb
Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 17:07:51
Just a note that E.T. Hall (Teddy Hall) just died. He was the archaeologist who unmasked the Piltdown fraud in the 1950s.
Posted By: Alex Boese
September 27, 2001
Hello,
On the subject of the Piltdown man:
A few years ago I read in The Telegraph (British paper - sorry, not sure where your website is based) that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of the Sherlock Holmes books) was a favourite culprit. A very religious man he had often spoken out against evolution, and was learned enough to do constuct a decent fake. Supposedly he was going to reveal all - to prove how easy it was to fool the fossil hunters, but then - I can't remember. The story became too big and he backed out, or a war started, or he died. Anyway, something happened and he never came forward to laugh in the face of the new science...
Worth your looking into if you have the time/inclination - it's a great ending to the tale!
Posted By: jenn
May 16, 2001
my favorite hoax of all time is Piltdown Man.
Posted By: Anonymous
March 16, 2001
My favorite is the Piltdown Man.
Thanks.
Posted By: I. Lee
February 27, 2001
Some say Doyle was responsible for the Piltdown man hoax. The main argument for Doyle is that he was the neighbor of Charles Dawson, the man who found the Piltdown man skull. However, I think most people point to Dawson himself as the chief perpetrator.

As for owning art forgeries, I think that the British Museum did an entire exhibit on forgeries a few years ago. Quite a few people are interested in collecting them, so I imagine you'd have to be willing to pay quite a bit to get a 'real' forgery.
Posted By: Alex Boese
September 27, 2000
Two questions:
1. Did Arthur Conan Doyle (author of the Shirlock Holmes books) perpatrate an archeological hoax using a skeleton he assembled from dog, chicken and other bones? I think it was called "Piltdown Man" or something along those lines.
2. I am trying to start a collection of art forgeries. I do not wish to defraud anyone, I just like the idea of owning art that fooled the experts and has a great story attached. Do you know anyone who might be able to provide me with some?
Regards
Posted By: David
September 27, 2000
Piltdown Man receives my vote as best hoax.
Posted By: Anonymous
September 20, 2000