Piltdown man

This is the field in Sussex where Charles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward unearthed the Piltdown bones. Click the screen to find out how they carried out their field work. Then compare it with an excavation today.

2. In the field | The map

Map of the Piltdown area

Dawson and Woodward needed to estimate the age of the human fossils they found at Piltdown. When Dawson considered the location he noticed a resemblance to a well-known fossil site in France. Both sites were close to a river and sat 100 feet above modern river level. The French site had been dated to the Ice Age, a time known as the Pleistocene. Dawson concluded that the Piltdown site must date back to a similar time.

Question

Do you think Dawson was right to make this assumption?

References

• Discovering fossils:
  general information about fossil collecting in the UK
• The scientific method:
  explored as part of the Museum's Darwin Centre experience