It was everything to do with Britain's position in the world. We were an important nation, had an empire. We weren't going to have Johnny Foreigners turning up with interesting fossils and us not having any. This was an important political as well as scientific find. On December 18th 1912, Dawson and Woodward broke their story to the world. They had found the missing link, and he was English. Dubbed the earliest Englishman, for 40 years he reigned supreme. But in 1953, the sensational announcement came. Piltdown Man was a fake. The world had been deceived. It was hugely embarrassing. The scientific community had been completely taken in. There were even questions in Parliament about it, weren't there? Yeah, nationally this is quite a big issue.


这与英国的国际地位密切相关，当时我国具有重要地位拥有殖民帝国，外国人不断发现有意义的化石而我们一无所获，这是不能接受的。这是重大的科学发现，更有重大的政治意义。最古老的人类头骨于萨塞克斯出土。 “迷失的一环"找到了? 1912年12月18日，道森和伍德沃向世界公布了这一发现。他们发现了"迷失一环" 此人还是英国人，最古老的英国人。四十年来，它被称为最古老的英国人。但1953年出现了轰动性的声明，辟尔唐人是假造的。世纪恶作剧——辟尔唐人是假货，颌骨牙齿出自现代猿类，全世界都被蒙骗。 太难堪了 整个科学界都受骗了，辟尔唐先生倒大霉了， 国会也调查了此事，是吗？ 是的，这件事在全国都很轰动。