Bibliography - British Geological Survey

‘To connect the shapely, wholly normal Piltdown jaw with the gross, heavy Piltdown skull into the same
individual seems very difficult. After prolonged handling of both the jaw and the skull there remained in the
writer a strong impression that the two may not belong together, or that if they do the case is totally
exceptional.’ He concludes however that the jaw is not that of a chimpanzee, as argued by his American
colleagues, but of a human precursor or very early man.)
Hrdlička, A. 1923. Dimensions of the first and second lower molars, with their bearing on the Piltdown jaw
and on man’s phylogeny. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 6 (2), 195–216. (Concludes that ‘the
Piltdown teeth, primitive as they are in some respects, are already human or close to human.’)
Hrdlička, A. 1924. New data on the teeth of early man and certain fossil European apes. American Journal
of Physical Anthropology, 7, 109–132, plate. (Eoanthropus, pp. 118–122)
Hrdlička, A. 1930. The skeletal remains of early man. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 83, 379 pp.,
93 plates. (Including a highly critical review of the Piltdown discoveries, pp. 65–90, plates XIII–XIV. The
writer reinforces the incongruity that exists between the jaw and skull. He concludes that ‘...it must be plain
that any far-fetched deductions from the Piltdown materials are not justified. This applies particularly to the
superficially attractive conclusions that the Piltdown remains demonstrate the existence in the early Pleistocene,
long before the Neanderthal and even the Heidelberg forms, of men with practically modern-sized and
modern-formed skulls and brains and directly ancestral to Homo sapiens or recent man. This hypothesis is a
proposition that would change the whole face and trend of human prehistory, and that against all other and
better substantiated evidence in this line.’)
Hunter, J. I. 1924? New light on the controversy of the Piltdown jaw and cranium. Summary address before
the Society of Dental Science, New South Wales, pp. 1–11. (Cited by Quenstedt 1936)
Hunter, J. I. (see under Smith, G. E.)
Illingworth, L. G. 1953. Collapse of 600,000-year-old party. Punch, 2 Dec, 653. (Includes a cartoon with the
caption: “This may hurt, but I’m afraid I’ll have to remove the whole jaw.” The cartoon, which shows an ape
in a dentist’s chair with Alvan Marston about to operate, was inspired by Marston’s outburst at a meeting of
the Geological Society on 25 Nov, but probably derives its theme from a humorous ‘Notice of Operation’ that
was circulated by Marston in 1936 prior to a meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine where he put forward
his argument for disassociating the Piltdown jaw and skull. For background to this see Turrittin 2004, who
reproduces the cartoon, as does Spencer 1990a, frontispiece, and Blinderman.)
Irving, A. 1913. The Piltdown horse “grinder.” Nature, 91 (28 Aug), 661. (Identifies a horse premolar from
the Piltdown site as Equus robustus, implying a date for the Piltdown gravel far younger than Pliocene. The
writer came to his conclusion after examining the original specimen at the Natural History Museum.)
Irving, A. 1914. The Piltdown skull. Morning Post, Jan.
Jenkins, W. D. 1987. Has anything escaped me? Baker Street Miscellanea, no. 49, 28‒34.
Joel, C. E. 1982. The Piltdown let down. Popular Archaeology, 4 (2), 4. (Response to Clements 1982)
Johnstone, P. 1957. Buried treasure. London: Phoenix House, 111 pp., 67 plates. (Tells the story of a BBC
television series hosted by Glyn Daniel, which included a half-hour feature on Piltdown Man, aired on 30
May 1955)
Jones, M., Craddock, P. & Barker, N. (eds) 1990. Fake? The art of deception. London: British Museum
Publications, 312 pp. (Including Piltdown, pp. 93–96)
[Keith, A.] 1912a. Discovery of a new type of fossil man. British Medical Journal, 21 Dec, 1719–1720; &
28 Dec, 1763–1764. (On the evidence of his personal diary, this anonymous review was written by Keith
two days before the formal presentation of the Piltdown discovery at the Geological Society on 18 Dec and
derives from his personal examination of the material at the Natural History Museum early in December. He
is critical of Smith Woodward’s interpretation of the Piltdown teeth. See Spencer 1990a, 188–190 etc, &
Walsh 1996, 152–153 etc, for quoted passages, discussion and differing interpretation.)
Keith, A. 1913a. Modern problems relating to the antiquity of man. Report of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, Dundee, 1912, 753‒759. (Keith begins by noting Boyd Dawkins’ contention that
the dawn of man occurred in the Pleistocene, which W. J. Sollas dates at some 400,000 years ago. ‘Human