Abstract
IN the report1 on the main results of our re-examination of the Piltdown material, we gave reasons for regarding the chromate staining of the mandible as indicating a deliberate attempt to match a modern bone with the mineralized cranial fragments. The actual composition of this bone (3.9 per cent nitrogen, less than 0.03 per cent fluorine) suffices to prove its modernity; but the chromate staining, combined with the artificially abraded appearance of the molars, indicates that it is not only modern but also fraudulent.
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References
Weiner, J. S., Oakley, K. P., and Clark, W. E. Le Gros, Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Geol. Ser., 2, No. 3 (1953).
Doubts about their genuineness were expressed in 1949 in a handbook of the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), “Man the Tool-Maker”, 1st edit., pp. 69–70.
Dawson, C., and Woodward, A. S., Quart. J. Geol. Soc. Lond., 69, 122, footnote 1, pl. xvi, fig. 2 (1913).
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OAKLEY, K., WEINER, J. Chemical Examination of the Piltdown Implements. Nature 172, 1110 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/1721110a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1721110a0
