The Piltdown Skull and Brain Cast

Abstract

THE discovery of the fragments of the Piltdown skull has given rise to a problem of a new kind. In all former discoveries of the remains of ancient man the part of the skull actually found was intact, or, if broken, a sufficient number of pieces were recovered to render reconstruction an easy task. In the case of the Piltdown skull, although the greater part of the bony walls of the cranial cavity were found, a large area of the forehead and along the middle line of the roof of the skull are still missing. The problem that has to be solved is: How much is missing? The solution of the problem, as Dr. Smith Woodward realised when he commenced his work of restoration, lies in the hinder or occipital wall of the skull. The fragment which Dr. Smith Woodward himself discovered gives a definite index to the width of the right half of the occipital bone, and also to the width of the hinder or occipital part of the head.