It all started in the early 1900s, when a laborer digging in southern England near the village of Piltdown reportedly found a strange piece of skull that he passed on to local amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson.
Dawson obtained more fossils from the site and, believing they were the remains of a very ancient human, approached Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, Keeper of Geology at the Natural History Museum. In December 1912, the two presented the reconstructed skull to the public as that of humankind's earliest ancestor.
Forty years later, new scientific tests showed that Piltdown Man was a forgery, concocted in part from what was probably an orangutan's jaw.
Piltdown Man was a fake! But who did it?
The Boldest Hoax examines the details behind Piltdown Man. Why was Piltdown Man considered to be the fossil to end all fossils? Who had the knowledge and skills to pull off such an elaborate hoax? Who would want to trick the scientific community with such a devastating deception? Was it Charles Dawson or Sir Arthur Smith Woodward? Or could it have been Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories?
Premiere broadcast January 11, 2005 on NOVA/PBS
NOVA - The Boldest Hoax
