A hundred years ago this December the Piltdown Man hoax was presented to a Britain whose archaeological establishment initially accepted it. People thought a key link in the evolution of man had been discovered, and it took many very embarrassing years for the 'fossils' to be revealed as a bodged together collection of bones from different sources.
While that mystery has been solved - we have an article here if you'd like to learn more - one question still remains: who set this whole hoax up? Antiquarian Charles Dawson is a favourite, but now scientists are studying the Piltdown bones again to try and work out where they came from, and who is likely to have collected them. The BBC has an article exploring the approaches being used.

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