I have been looking up a couple of sites in this worthy QRA booklet -- and came across an entry for Piltdown. So the old hoax id still celebrated, to "remind us of the importance of taking a rigorous approach to all science" -- according to the citation.
Quite so. Now can we please have an entry for Rhosyfelin, and one for Carn Goedog, and another for Waun Mawn? To remind us what can happen when archaeologists and geologists deliberately ignore the advice of glacial geomorphologists........ There can be a memorial to our old friend MPP as well. He would like that.
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Nominated by Colin Prosser
The Piltdown hoax, the elaborate falsification of fossil material and associated artefacts in order to make them appear to represent the evolutionary ‘missing link’ between man and apes, is internationally renowned as one of the most notorious cases of scientific forgery in history and has been the subject of hundreds of papers, books, articles, press reports and web-pages. As such, the site of these ‘finds’ is arguably the most famous, or infamous, Quaternary site in the UK. Although now known to be little more than a gravel deposit representing a terrace of the River Ouse, it was once a focus of scientific excavation and research throwing light on the evolution of man and was regarded being of such importance that it became the GB’s first geological
The Piltdown hoax, the elaborate falsification of fossil material and associated artefacts in order to make them appear to represent the evolutionary ‘missing link’ between man and apes, is internationally renowned as one of the most notorious cases of scientific forgery in history and has been the subject of hundreds of papers, books, articles, press reports and web-pages. As such, the site of these ‘finds’ is arguably the most famous, or infamous, Quaternary site in the UK. Although now known to be little more than a gravel deposit representing a terrace of the River Ouse, it was once a focus of scientific excavation and research throwing light on the evolution of man and was regarded being of such importance that it became the GB’s first geological
Piltdown Skull Site showing the memorial to Charles Dawson marking the location of the Piltdown ‘finds’ and the brick-built entrance to the ‘witness section’ that once exposed the gravels. (Photo: C. Prosser).
National Nature Reserve (NNR) in 1952. The uncovering of the forgery during 1953/4 led to international embarrassment for Britain and British science and started a ‘who done it’ still discussed today. Although only a small site with little or no exposure, and stripped of its NNR status, the Piltdown Skull Site still has a strong sense of history. The site of original 1913 excavations, the memorial to Dawson who ‘discovered’ Piltdown Man, and the remains of a brick-built ‘witness section’ constructed when the site was made an NNR, are still visible and remind us of the importance of taking a rigorous approach to all science.
References
National Nature Reserve (NNR) in 1952. The uncovering of the forgery during 1953/4 led to international embarrassment for Britain and British science and started a ‘who done it’ still discussed today. Although only a small site with little or no exposure, and stripped of its NNR status, the Piltdown Skull Site still has a strong sense of history. The site of original 1913 excavations, the memorial to Dawson who ‘discovered’ Piltdown Man, and the remains of a brick-built ‘witness section’ constructed when the site was made an NNR, are still visible and remind us of the importance of taking a rigorous approach to all science.
References
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/geologyOfBritain/archives/piltdownMan/home.html
Prosser, C. 2009. The Piltdown Skull Site: the rise and fall of Britain’s first geological National Nature Reserve and its place in the history of nature conservation. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 120, 79-88.
Prosser, C. 2009. The Piltdown Skull Site: the rise and fall of Britain’s first geological National Nature Reserve and its place in the history of nature conservation. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 120, 79-88.
Russell, M. 2004. The Secret Life of Charles Dawson. Tempus.
3 comments:
Good grief!! - at first I thought that one of MPP's bogus "quarry" sites had conned its way into this QAR publication!
The QRA is far more responsible than that.......
Thank goodness!!
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