Piltdown

A gravel pit at Barkham Manor near Lewes on the south coast of central southern England where between 1908 and 1915 Mr Charles Dawson found what were claimed to be skull fragments of modern type with a jaw of more ape-like appearance. Those keen to promote a link between apes and humans saw the finds as the ‘missing link’, but even by 1935 serious doubts were cast on the integrity of the finds and it later emerged that the whole thing was a hoax. Pieces of crania from a modern human and the jaw from an orangutan had been artificially aged and ‘planted’ together in a deposit alongside a variety of other animal remains.

[Sum.: R. Millar, 1998, The Piltdown mystery: the story behind the world's greatest archaeological hoax. London: S. B. Publishers]