Piltdown Man
Origin Stories
Meredith Johnson
4.8 • 554 Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2019
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, we explore the story of Piltdown Man – one of the most notorious hoaxes in history.
When Piltdown Man was discovered in a gravel pit outside a small English village in 1912, it was celebrated as a "missing link." The find captured the public's imagination and became world-famous. The problem was that Piltdown Man was a complete fraud. The purported fossils were actually made up of modern human bones and an orangutan mandible.
The Piltdown hoax suspects have included Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes, and the philosopher Teilhard de Chardin. Now, more than 100 years later, scientists have narrowed the suspects down to a single culprit.
Thanks to producer Leo Hornak for reporting this story.
Thanks also to Professor Chris Dean of University College, London, Dr. Isabelle De Groote of Liverpool University, Karolyn Shindler, Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London, and Dr. David Joyce of Clark University, who runs the excellent Piltdown Plot website.
Thanks as well to Dr. Miles Russell of Bournemouth University - author of "Piltdown Man: The Secret Life of Charles Dawson."
And finally thanks to Dr. Hugh Cecil for his advice and encouragement.
Readings were by Luke Blackall, Angelo Hornak, and Jonathan Keates.
The archival lecture audio used in this episode is from The Leakey Foundation Archive. You can listen to Dr. Weiner's complete lecture on our website.
The Leakey Foundation
Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. The Leakey Foundation funds cutting-edge research about human evolution and human behavior. Support this show and the science we talk about with a tax-deductible donation. Thanks to a generous supporter, your donation will automatically be doubled!
Visit leakeyfoundation.org/donate to donate today!
Credits
Producer: Leo Hornak
Editor: Julia Barton
Host and Series Producer: Meredith Johnson
Senior Producer: Catherine Girardeau
Sound Design: Katie McMurran
Theme Music: Henry Nagle
Additional Music:
Sponsors
This season of Origin Stories is made possible by support from Dixon Long, Jeanne Newman, Camilla Smith, and donors like you!
Get Social
We'd love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook. Please say hi and let us know what you think of the show!
If you like the show, please leave us a review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to help other people find the show and we really appreciate it.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is Origin Stories, the Leaky Foundation podcast. I'm Meredith Johnson, and on today's |
| 0:14.6 | episode, we travel to England to tell the story of an infamous missing link. Even if you think you know the story about to come, |
| 0:23.3 | trust me when I say it's weirder than you can imagine. |
| 0:27.0 | Telling it, we'll take this podcast for the first time |
| 0:29.7 | into the realm of magical toads and sea serpents. |
| 0:33.9 | London-based reporter Leo Hornack has a story. |
| 0:38.6 | Right, so this is probably one of the most famous paintings in this building, |
| 0:43.9 | so it is occasionally loaned out to exhibitions around the world. |
| 0:47.6 | This is Sarah Day, one of the staff here at London's Historic Geological Society. |
| 0:53.6 | The Society is one of the most prestigious scientific institutions in the world. |
| 0:57.6 | It's a very special place, yeah. Yeah, we've been here, gosh, we've been here since about 1873. |
| 1:02.6 | Picture thick carpets, chandeliers, a staircase like something from Downton Abbey. |
| 1:08.0 | And Sarah's agreed to show me one of the society's most precious treasures, |
| 1:11.9 | a group portrait painted more than a century ago. |
| 1:15.0 | So the painting is commemorating a meeting of a group of scientists at the Royal College of Surgeons, |
| 1:20.8 | which took place in 1913. So it was painted in great reverence to the importance of this scene |
| 1:26.6 | and this find. |
| 1:32.7 | As you'll hear, there's something very strange about this painting and the fact that it's still on display. |
| 1:34.9 | And it's called Discussion on the Piltdown Skull. |
| 1:39.7 | The painting shows a group of eight leading British scientists of the early 20th century, |
| 1:46.0 | crowded around a desk, a desk which is covered in human-looking skulls and jawbones. And in the centre of the desk lies the piltdown skull, lit by a sunbeam. |
| 1:51.0 | And everyone around him is looking on in great reverence and excitement. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Meredith Johnson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Meredith Johnson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.