6. The Hoax That Retarded Ancient Archaeology For Decades
Charles Dawson was an amateur English archaeologist who, in 1912, made a sensational announcement: he had discovered human-like fossils in Piltdown, East Sussex. He was digging in a Pleistocene gravel bed, and unearthed fossilized fragments of a cranium, jawbone, and other parts. Britain’s premier paleontologist pronounced the fossils evidence of a hitherto unknown proto-human species. It was viewed as the “missing link” between ape and man, thus proving the then-still controversial theory that man descended from apes. The pronouncements were accepted uncritically by many leading British scientists. Further excavations in the vicinity were made in 1913 and 1914, during which stone tools were discovered. Two miles away, teeth and additional skull fragments were unearthed. So were animal remains, and a mysterious carved bone resembling a cricket bat. The excitement mounted with each new find.
At the time, there was a growing, and as it ultimately turned out, correct, scientific belief that human evolution from ape to man had occurred in Africa. It was there that fossils of homo erectus, an early hominid, had been discovered. That however meant that the cradle of mankind was in Africa, and that all humans were of African origin. The notion that they were ultimately African was too jarring for many Europeans, including many in the British scientific community. The era’s prevalent racism and ethno-nationalism led the British scientists into confirmation bias, causing them to interpret the “evidence” in the light most favorable to their preexisting prejudices.