DISCOVERY 



181 



rather than as a desire to make an end of life. So that 

 there is a deep truth in that apparent paradox of 

 Buddha's teaching that the way to Nirvana lies through 

 life and not through death. 



It is more especially the thinking type, the " tender- 

 minded " tj'pe of William James, who has the inclina- 

 tion and the power thus to escape from reality, but 

 there are indications that at least among the Western 

 races the thinking t}-pe is becoming more common. 

 The old s^Tnbols of authority and religion are no longer 

 unquestionably accepted, but at the same time no 

 new guiding hnes have been found to take their place. 

 There seems to be a general reconsideration of values 

 and a profound disquieting psychological unrest. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

 J. C. Flugel. Psycho-A nalylic Study of the Family (International 



Psycho-Anal\-tic Press). 

 Jung. Psychology of the Unconscious (Kegan Paul). 

 Maurice Nicoll. Dream Psychology (Oxford Medical Publica- 

 tions). 

 Franz Ricklin. Wish Fidfilmetit and Symbolism in Fairy 

 Tales (Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co., New 

 York). 



New Light on the 

 Piltdown Skull 



By E. N. Fallaize 



Hon. Sec. Royal Anlliropological Inslilule 



Ever since the discovery of fragments of a human 

 cranium and jawbone at Piltdown in Sussex in 1912, 

 a fierce controversy has raged over these interesting 

 remains. So serious has been the division of opinion 

 that in a recent textbook it has been stated that the 

 Piltdown Skull affords evidence neither as to the date 

 nor as to the character of early man in Europe. While 

 it is unnecessary to take up such an extreme position, 

 it has yet been desirable to recognise that many of 

 the statements relating to early man, in so far as 

 they depend upon the evidence from Piltdown, have 

 rested upon a foundation of which the elements were 

 not universally accepted as secure. Recently, how- 

 ever, an important contribution to one aspect of the 

 discussion has done much to resolve these difficulties 

 and, if it falls short of absolute certainty, has at any 

 rate provided a more secure basis for future work. 



Before proceeding to indicate the nature and bear- 

 ing of this latest contribution to the subject, it is 

 perhaps desirable to recapitulate briefly the circum- 

 stances of the discovery of the Piltdown Skull and the 

 main points of difficulty to which they have given 

 rise. In 1912 the late Mr. C. Dawson found, among 



gravels which had been excavated by workmen, frag- 

 ments of a human cranium, part of a lower jaw, a 

 canine tooth from an upper jaw, flint implements of 

 an early and a later t\-pe, and a chisel-like implement 

 of fossilised bone of a mammal of elephant type which 

 has not j-et been more precisely defined. 



In appraising the value of this discovery, the first 

 difficult}' encountered was that of the age of these 

 relics of early man. While it was agreed that they 

 were of high antiquit}-, it was not possible to assign 

 to them with certainty any precise date. The jaw- 

 bone alone was found in an undisturbed patch of 

 gravel. The remainder were not found in siiu : some 

 lay as they had been thrown out by the workmen 

 — the skull had been broken up in the course of 

 the work — and others were on gravel heaps some 

 little distance away. It was therefore impossible 

 to say from which strata of the excavation these 

 remains had been derived or whether they all 

 belonged to the same stratum. A number of frag- 

 ments of the bones of mammals belonging to the 

 Pliocene Age were found. This fact, taken in con- 

 junction with the occurrence of typical specimens of 

 those early types of chipped flints which are regarded 

 by some as man's handiwork, suggested that these 

 were the remains of man of the Pliocene Age, the last 

 phase of the Tertiary Period, and as such represented 

 the earliest human remains found in this country. 

 On the other hand, eoliths, those early so-called imple- 

 ments, afford no criterion of date and are themselves 

 in need of support. Further, it was pomted out, the 

 gravels were river gravels which had been deposited 

 in their present position by running water. Some of 

 the objects exhibited obvious traces of ha\'ing been 

 water-borne and, it was argued, the association of 

 pliocene remains was probably the result of an early 

 " wash-out." The occurrence of flakes of an early 

 paleolithic t\-pe supported a later datmg. Accord- 

 ingl}' high authorities, such as Professor Sir William 

 Boyd Dawkins, refused to admit an earlier dating than 

 the Pleistocene Age, the earliest period of the Quater- 

 nary, immediatel}' preceding the age regarded by 

 geologists as " recent." In taking this view they 

 agreed with Mr. Dawson and Dr. Smith Woodward, 

 the joint-authors of the original account of the 

 discovery. 



There for the present the question of dating stands. 

 Failing further evidence, the case of the archaeologist 

 for Pliocene man on this site must be held to be not 

 proven. The counter-arguments are strong. Some 

 time after the first discover}', Mr. Dawson found 

 about two miles away two small fragments and a 

 molar of a second skull of similar primitive character ; 

 but up to the present, further excavation at Piltdown 

 has produced no fresh evidence in support of either 



