Forgery Collection

Lochness Monster
A dramatic picture of the supposed giant water creature that lives in Loch Ness, Scotland and its small offspring, followed by divers holding underwater cameras

A discussion on the Piltdown skull by John Cooke
Portrait group of well-known British scientists examining the Piltdown skull. This topical painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1915

Piltdown Man memorial, 1938
The site of the discovery of the Piltdown skull: the monolith memorial unveiled by Sir Keith Arthur on 22nd July 1938. The memorial was placed in the grounds of Barkham Manor at Piltdown

Largest ear of corn grown in Canada
Humorous card depicting the Largest ear of corn grown in Canada !! 1910

Piltdown Man article- The most ancient inhabitant of England
The most ancient inhabitant of England: the newly found Sussex Man. A page from the Illustrated London News by W.P Pycraft, examining the parallels between the Piltdown Man skull and jaw

Piltdown forgery meeting
Meeting to present the extent of the forgery at the Geological Society of London at Burlington House on 30 June 1954

Piltdown man reconstructed
The Piltdown man sketched by A. Forestier after Professor Keiths reconstruction, and an inset showing an alterative reconstruction after Dr. A. Smith Woodward

Geologists at Piltdown
Geologists Association party visiting the pit at Piltdown on 12 July 1913

Little Women - Mrs March and Jo read a letter
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - Mrs March and Jo read a letter, purporting to be a love letter to Meg from John Brooke, but actually a practical joke and forgery. 1880

Piltdown Man
An illustration of The earliest known inhabitant of England, based upon the fragments of skull and jawbone supposedly discovered in a gravel pit at Piltdown, East Sussex, England

Martin Alister Campbell Hinton (1883-1961)
Portrait of Martin Alister Campbell Hinton, a zoologist and keeper of zoology at the British Museum (Natural History). From Piltdown, A Scientific Forgery

Piltdown Man: reconstructed skulls compared
Ape-Man of Modern Man? The two Piltdown skull reconstructions. A page from the Illustrated London News, debating the merits of Dr. A

Piltdown Man: mandible and skull compared
Ape-Man of Modern Man? The two Piltdown skull reconstructions. A page from the Illustrated London News, debating the merits of Dr. A

The Piltdown jaw: a reconstruction by W. P Pycraft
A drawing by W. P Pycraft of the restored jaw of the Piltdown Man, showing a pronounced forward thrust. Date: 1912

Piltdown Man: brain capacity compared
A page from the Illustrated London News, debating the merits of Dr. A. Smith-Woodwards reconstruction of the Piltdown Mans brain over the reconstruction proposed by Professor Arthur Keith s

Piltdown Man: Dawson and Smith-Woodward search for more bone
Seeking remains of the oldest known Englishman: looking for relics of the Piltdown Man. Charles Dawson and A. Smith-Woodward searching for other parts of the skeleton on the site of the first

Athene blewitti, forest owlet
Donated to the Museum in 1954 by Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, it was discovered that he had in fact stolen the specimen from the Museum and changed its label

The Piltdown man excavation site
Excavation at Piltdown c. 1913 with Cyril Woodward showing scale

The Piltdown (Skull) Gravel Pit
The site where the Pitdown specimens were claimed to have been discovered (1912-1915). Photograph believed to have been taken during the winter of 1913

Barkham Avenue, Piltdown, Sussex
View looking down the drive c. 1912, including from left to right, Venus Hargreaves, Arthur Smith Woodward (with the goose Chipper), Charles Dawson, and Robert Kenward Snr

Searching for the Piltdown Man

Excavations at Piltdown circa 1913
Charles Dawson (left) and Dr A Smith Woodward (right)

Workers at Piltdown

Pongo sp. Mandible and molar (Piltdown 1 & 2)
Lateral lingual view of Piltdown 1 mandible with Piltdown 2 left molar. Held at The Natural History Museum, London

Homo sapiens cranium (Piltdown 1)
Two pieces that represent the Piltdown 1 cranium held at The Natural History Museum, London. This specimen was reported as being discovered at Piltdown

Piltdown Stegodon tooth
Piltdown, Sussex item E.620, part of a molar tooth of the extinct mammal Stegodon, of the Pliocene to the Pleistocene epochs. Held at the Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown Mastodon tooth
Piltdown, Sussex item E.622, edge view of molar of the extinct mammal Mastodon. Held at the Natural History Museum, London

Pongo sp. Mandible with canine (Piltdown 1)
Left lateral view of the Piltdown mandible reported to be that of a newly found homind species in 1913 but then revealed as a forgery in 1953. Specimen held at The Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown flake implement
Piltdown, Sussex item E.612 held at The Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown flints
Collection of Piltdown flints held at The Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown Eolithic flint
Piltdown, Sussex item E.614 held at The Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown rolled flake
Piltdown, Sussex item E.613 held at The Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown flint implement
Piltdown, Sussex item E.605 held at The Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown Palaeolith flint
Piltdown, Sussex item E.685 held at The Natural History Museum, London

Equus sp. horse
Upper molar tooth from a species of the Equus genus. Item E. 602 of the animal fossil specimens found at Piltdown, Sussex, 1912-15, held at the Natural History Museum, London

Castor fiber, Eurasian beaver
Lower molar tooth of a Eurasian beaver. Item E. 603 of the animal fossil specimens found at Piltdown, Sussex, 1912-15, held at the Natural History Museum, London

Echinocarys, echinoid hoax
A hoax fossil echinoid found at Piltdown, Sussex. Specimen now held at the Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown memorial
July 1938, Sir Arthur Smith Woodward next to the memorial marking the site of the discovery of the Piltdown skull by Charles Dawson. Photograph loaned to Museum by Charles Taylor Trechmann

Professor J. S. Weiner
Pretoria born scientist who became Reader in Physical Anthropology at Oxford. In 1953 he famously exposed the Piltdown Man as a fraud

Piltdown 1 jaw
Left lateral view of Piltdown 1 jaw. Held at The Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown 1 jaw and Piltdown 2 left molar
Occlusal view of Piltdown 1 jaw with Piltdown 2 left molar. Held at The Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown 1 cranium
Five pieces that represent the Piltdown 1 cranium (not including jaw). Held at The Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown 1 molar
Scanning electron microscope view of molar surface showing scratch marks

Piltdown skull
Three-quarter view of model reconstruction of the Piltdown skull

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