Event type:
Evening meeting
Organised by:
Geological Society Library
Venue:
Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly
Event status:
EVENT CLOSED
The Geological Society Library is delighted to present our latest event, ‘F is for Fake’, on Thursday 6 April 2017. This special evening, held just after April Fool’s Day, celebrates two of history’s most infamous geological hoaxes.
“Piltdown Man and Charles Dawson’s career in forgery”, a talk by David Bate, British Geological Survey.
Charles Dawson (1864 - 1916) was a man whose tireless enthusiasm, imagination and ambition got the better of him. He was fascinated by many aspects of the world about him, but focused the principal part of his enquiring mind on the subjects of geology, archaeology and history. Quick to give an opinion on anything novel or startling, Dawson was ever alive to the possibility of making new observations or discoveries and gaining credit for them.
Yet by 1909 Dawson complained that in spite of his many important fossil discoveries he was still waiting for the big “find” which never seemed to come along. Hence when Nature failed to oblige, he resorted to manufacturing his own and in 1912 Piltdown Man, the ‘missing link’ between man and ape, was born in a Sussex gravel pit.
It took forty years to prove it a fake, but it was not Dawson’s first foray into the realm of forgery.
Following the talk, there will be an opportunity to view the Society’s famous painting ‘Discussion on the Piltdown Skull’, by John Cooke, 1915.
Time
7.30 - 8.30pm
Cost
Tickets cost £6.00 and can be booked by phone on 020 7432 0999
On the same evening
On the same evening, from 6.00 - 7.00pm, we present “Fossil fraud on a massive scale: the 'lying stones' of Johann Beringer”, a talk by Paul Taylor, Natural History Museum. This event can be booked separately here or by phone on 020 7432 0999