88 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 83 



THE SECOND SKULL 



The second skull, found, it will be recalled, two miles away in the 

 Takings of a field, is represented by a fragment of the frontal bone. 

 There is also a portion of the occipital which probably belonged to 

 the same cranium. The find is described in detail by Dr. Woodward 

 in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, Vol. 73, Pt. 

 I, i-io, 1917. 



The more important fragment is a part from the right supraorbital 

 region and squama of a frontal bone, close to the middle line. Both 

 pieces are similar in color and mineralization to the skull bones of 

 the first find, and are only slightly less thick. The thinnest part 

 of the squama that is left gave Dr. Woodward a thickness of 8 mm., 

 the thinnest part of the frontal squama of the first skull 9 mm. ; 

 the greatest thickness of the occipital fragment is 17 mm. ; of the 

 occipital of the first skull 20 mm. 



The frontal part belongs clearly to a female skull of modern type, 

 and the occipital conforms with this. Though this latter fragment 

 shows more weathering, the characteristics of the two parts are such 

 that their belonging to one skull is very probable. 



This second specimen makes it certain that in the Piltdown gravels, 

 within a few feet from the surface, there occur mineralized skulls 

 of almost if not wholly a modern form, though some, at least, are 

 markedly thicker ; and with these skulls are loosely associated primi- 

 tive human implements, and animal fossils of early Pleistocene as 

 well as Pliocene age. The problem is whether the skulls, the imple- 

 ments, and the animal fossils are contemporaneous ; in other words, 

 whether the skulls may not somehow be intrusive. 



One would like very much to avoid this question ; the probabilities 

 seem all to speak for the specimens belonging together ; but in view 

 of the history of the deposition of the gravels, together with some of 

 the uncertainties of the find and the apparent incongruity of the 

 parts, the mind is not satisfied. 



CONCLUDING CRITICAL REMARKS 



The Piltdown remains comprise a series of fragments of two 

 skulls, derived apparently from coarse old gravels. 



There are several points of weakness in this connection, on which 

 unfortunately no further light is now possible. 



The first is the circumstances of the find. The discovery and re- 

 moval of the first skull was not supervised by scientific men ; there is 

 no information as to exactly how it lay and whether or not there was 



