The Piltdown Man skull, partially original (dark) and partially theoretical (beige).

The “missing link” in human evolution? Well, that’s what English archaeologists believed for many years had been discovered when a skull with both human and ape characteristics was revealed by an amateur archaeologist, Charles Dawson. Unfortunately, for decades this hoax would confuse scientists’ insight into the course of human evolution.

In 1912, Dawson announced that he had pieced together parts of a skull found near Piltdown village; while it had an ape-like jaw and teeth, the brain cavity of the skull was large, similar in size to that of a modern human. This seemed to fit perfectly with the idea of humankind’s intelligence pushing forward its evolution. In addition to the skull, the Piltdown site produced animal bones and primitive tools (as well as an artifact that looked suspiciously like a cricket bat), adding to its apparent validity. Many years after Dawson’s death however, scientists working at the Natural History Museum in London proved that the skull was faked; not only were the bones more recent than initially believe, but while the skull fragments were human, the jaw bone had probably belonged to an orangutan. These scientists also found scrape marks on the teeth, suggesting that someone had filed the teeth to give them a more human appearance.

Piltdown Man’s Jaw and Teeth

The trust in this hoax created a false understanding of human evolution, demonstrating the danger of fraudulent archaeology. British scientists may have been particularly accepting of the new discovery, since they had not yet found any significant prehistoric human remains, unlike their European counterparts; not only that, the new discovery seemed the closest link to modern man yet. Their belief was strong enough that when a scientist in Africa discovered a radically different early human skull, some scientists failed to acknowledge that true step on humankind’s evolutionary path. Until the skull was proved a fake in 1949, this hoax represented one of the biggest anomalies of the evolutionary sequence, hindering scientists trying to comprehend humankind’s past.

Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of this entire story is that the true perpetrator or perpetrators of this hoax have never been definitively identified. Dawson almost certainly was involved, as many of his other “discoveries” have also since been proven fraudulent; however, any number of other leading scientists and philosophers may have had a hand in the deception. Regardless of whether their intentions where to deceive or merely to play a practical joke on the scientific community, this hoax shaped and disrupted understanding of human evolution for nearly forty years, signifying the true menace of archaeological hoaxes.

Bibliography

http://www.britannica.com/topic/Piltdown-man

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/departments-and-staff/library-and-archives/collections/piltdown-man.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/archaeology/piltdown_man_01.shtml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/9747160/New-study-promises-to-lay-mystery-of-Piltdown-man-to-rest.htmlwd

Image Credits

Piltdown Skull: http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/results.asp?image=039916&itemw=4&itemf=0001&itemstep=1&itemx=2

Piltdown Man’s Jaw and Teeth: http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/results.asp?image=040480&itemw=4&itemf=0001&itemstep=1&itemx=22

Interesting Links
This link contains details on a number of the suspects, including Dawson and Arthur Conan Doyle: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/feb/05/piltdown-man-archaeologys-greatest-hoax

A somewhat over-dramatic BBC documentary about the Piltdown Man, focusing primarily on the later discovery of the fraud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOn97lU21L4

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The excavation and analysis of human remains has long been a staple in archaeology. Archaeologists can learn a lot about a civilization from the remains that they have left and how they take care of their remains. You can tell a lot about the values of a civilization based on their burial rituals and treatment of their own remains.  And through the use of forensic archaeology, human remains can be used to give insight into more recent events. With forensic archaeology, more recent remains can be used as evidence in criminal cases. Although the use of excavated remains is a fundamental part of archaeology, and has provided a great deal of information to archaeologist it does not come without controversy. Many people object to the excavation of remains because it does not show respect to the person who died.

Remains of Army Discovered in bog. Gave Archaeologists Information about Teutonic Massacre. Use of Human Remains

Excavation of a burial site.

Forensic Archaeology is a subset of archaeology that uses artifacts in order to help solve criminal cases. In forensic archaeology, human remains are very important. Archaeologists utilize human remains to determine information about a deceased person from before the person dies. This information age, sex, time of death, method of death, etc. can be crucial to a criminal case. In many cases criminals would have gotten away without being caught without the use of forensic anthropology. But does the good that comes from the use of human remains outweigh the negatives? Some say no.

Since the first excavations of human remains have been conducted there has been controversy. In many cultures, people are taught to show respect to the dead. It is disrespectful to disturb the remains of an already buried person. This can be trouble for archaeologists who need to use human remains to gather information about things. There have been many instances of clashes between archaeologists and people who believe that the use of human remains is wrong. This has occurred many times pertaining to the excavation of ruins belonging to indigenous peoples. Many descendants of Native American tribes are against the excavation of burial sites. A recent example of archaeologists clashing with people who oppose the use of human remains occurred in Britain. People have called for the reburial of the body of a young girl whose body had been excavated 80 years ago to pay respect to the girl. Archaeologists argue that the body is needed to conduct research.

In the end there are both positives and negatives to excavating human remains. The information obtained from human remains gives us great insight into events in both the past and the present, but it is also very controversial. I believe that if the correct respect is given when excavating the remains, that the use of human remains is fine and is an integral part to archaeological discoveries.

Sources:

http://www.bajr.org/BAJRGuides/14.%20Field%20Guide%20to%20the%20Excavation%20of%20Human%20Inhumated%20Remains/FieldGuidetotheExcavationofHumanInhumatedRemains.pdf

http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/search/4083964.Decision_to_come_on_girl___s_skeleton/

Further Reading:

http://alunsalt.com/2009/02/01/the-ethics-of-studying-human-remains/

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-11426538

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Studying human remains reveals unique information to archaeologists about a civilization’s customs and traditions.  In addition to cause of death, archaeologists can create a complete profile of the body’s lifestyle based on physiological features combined with intense critical thinking. Similarly, the remains of animals in the area can also provide great insight into a society’s culture by helping archaeologists gain a better understanding of the type of environment that the people lived in.  What kind of predators threatened their safety?  Did they domesticate animals and train them to perform actions to benefit the entire community?  A group of archaeologists used animal remains to analyze a unique aspect of Mayan culture—the interaction between different social and economic classes based on the distribution of animal resources.

This stone-carved depiction of a social-elite seizing resources from a lower class member of Mayan society serves as one of the few examples of art depicting social-class division.

Very little was known about the political and economic systems of Mayan society, as compared to archaeologists’ extensive knowledge of their advances in art and astronomy.  The way animal resources were distributed offered clues to the ways in which different social classes interacted, and archaeologists learned that their societies were not homogeneous by any means.  Instead, there were complicated systems in place to regulate trade relations, food distribution, and accessibility to species.  Because animals were used so widely for hides, tools, jewelry, and musical instruments, studying the geographic distribution of these resources revealed that there were elite classes that controlled a majority of the valuable resources.  But surprisingly, the middle classes used the widest variety of animals, as the wealthiest people only used exotic animals, such as jaguars and crocodiles, and the poorest could only afford to use inexpensive animals, such as a variety of fish and shellfish.

These animal bones, teeth and a cut jaw bone from a tapir, are an example of the ways Mayans used animal bones to create tools and instruments for daily use in society.

The study of animal bones has provided insight into the way Mayan cities interacted with surrounding villages through trade and commerce and has provided such extensive information because Mayan culture relies so heavily upon animal resources accomplish.  I am amazed by the amount of information that the archaeologists were able to infer about human cultures and tendencies from the examination of seemingly-unrelated artifacts.  Similar observations and critical thinking are applied when analyzing human remains as when uncovering truths about a society and their culture.  In the case of the Mayan civilization, the discovery of specific animal remains led archaeologists to believe that there were stricter class boundaries than previously thought.  The emergence of social hierarchy is an aspect of the “big picture” of Mayan civilization and social structure.  Without the creative approach to this investigative archaeology, they would be missing evidence of a significant aspect of Mayan culture which serves as further evidence of the often-overlooked sophistication of the ancient American civilizations.

Further Reading

http://phys.org/news/2015-10-temples-ancient-bones-reveal-mayan.html

http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/animal-bones-shed-light-lifestyle-citizens-ancient-maya-cities-004405

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/fall-2015/article/beyond-the-temples-ancient-bones-reveal-the-lives-of-the-mayan-working-class

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/researchers-analyse-animal-bones-understand-how-working-class-mayan-civilisation-lived-1526449

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Forensic archeology, to my surprise, is not what we often see on television. Although it involves people who have already passed away, often times we only have remnants of them left – maybe only a bone or two or small pieces of different bones. However, this branch of archeology is much more important than we give it credit for. It serves as a means of bringing about closure to the immediate families of the deceased, whether it is through a proper burial or information regarding their passing. As such, this branch of archeology is much more humanitarian in nature and can be thought of as a way of giving back to society. As we have learned, respect for the dead (often times in terms of a proper burial) is something that we hold to be very important and this dates back to circa 60,000 years ago, so this need for closure is not something new and we finally have a way of obtaining it in cases such as the one written here.

Figure 1: An image of Charlie Armstrong.

In this article from 2010, we see that forensic archeology was used to find a member of the Disappeared, people who were killed and had their bodies hidden during The Troubles, a period of thirty years marked by violence in Ireland. Unlike in television, this is not an easy process. It involves working with many parties, such as ICLVR and the family of the deceased, using tools like LIDAR, and a painstaking amount of time (months to years) on the field and mapping possible locations of the bodies. However, this work does pay off. The primary archeologist in the article said the following about his experience finding the body of one of the Disappeared, Charlie Armstrong:

“I’ve got to know Charlie’s widow, Kathleen, and their children very well over the years and know how much it means to them to bring Charlie home and give him a proper burial in consecrated ground. I feel proud that the team has helped them bring their many years of waiting to an end.”

Figure 2: An image of Inniskeen, the region in which Charlie Armstrong’s remains were found.

While television often spreads misinformation on forensic archeology, it brings the field into the eyes of the public, much like The Big Bang Theory does. Personally, I would not be interested in physics if it weren’t for the introduction to The Big Bang Theory and Michio Kaku (a physicist and public advocate of science). And in both fields, we see an increase in enrollment of students.
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If you would like to know more about The Troubles, please take a look below:
BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015. .
There is also a newer article from the BBC that has pointed to the discovery of other members of the Disappeared below:
“The Disappeared: ‘More than One Body’ Found during Search for Joe Lynskey – BBC News.” BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015. .
The original article which I referenced is below (this is also the source of my images):
“Using Forensic Archaeology to Find the Disappeared – BBC News.” BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015. .

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