THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 19 



discovery, unless the latter shows certain unique and entirely 

 unexpected features. 



The probable contemporaneity of the associated fauna with 

 that of the pre-Glacial forest beds has already been men- 

 tioned. Osborn in 1915 considered both the fauna and the 

 jaw to pertain to the Second Interglacial time, but Schoeten- 

 sack, Geikie, and others would assign them to the First Inter- 

 glacial (Lower Pleistocene). Gregory says (1921, page 

 126): 



If of Lower Pleistocene age, the Heidelberg jaw shows 

 that the most important diagnostic characters of the dentition 

 of the Hominidae had already been acquired at the beginning 

 of the Pleistocene epoch and indicates that prehuman transi- 

 tional conditions must be sought in earlier geological ages. 

 If, on the other hand, the Heidelberg jaw dates only from the 

 Middle Pleistocene, then transitional conditions may be looked 

 for as late as the Lower Pleistocene or Upper Pliocene. 



The age of this venerable relic read in terms of years is at 

 least 400,000, and the associated flints are Eolithic in culture. 



The Dawn Man of Piltdown (Eoanthropus dawsoni) 



This is by far the most ancient English human relic thus far 

 discovered, although there is some question as to the precise 

 dating and, owing to the fragmentary character of the ma- 

 terial when it came into scientific hands, it has aroused a great 

 deal of controversy, in marked contrast with the unhesitating 

 acceptance of the jaw of Heidelberg. The specimen was 

 found at Piltdown, on the Ouse, Sussex, in a shallow stratum 

 of gravel, less than four feet in thickness at the point of dis- 

 covery. This gravel rests on a bed-rock of Mesozoic age, the 

 Hastings beds. From the lowest six-inch layer of the Pilt- 

 down gravels, where everything is stained a deep brown, came 

 the skull, together with certain crude (Eolithic) implements 

 and the remains of several animals, long since extinct. This 



