2003, ISBN: 9780007122332

Oxford University Press/Natural History Museum Publications, 1990. 1st Revised Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. New/Very Good +. B&W drawings, maps, era photos. CONDITION: UNREAD, but not… Mehr…

Oxford University Press/Natural History Museum Publications, 1990. 1st Revised Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. New/Very Good +. B&W drawings, maps, era photos. CONDITION: UNREAD, but not quite perfect, 1990 Oxford University Press/Natural History Museum Publications hardcover (taupe boards) and dust jacket, first edition, first printing. Problem: The dust jacket shows "sunning" from dark yellow to light and back again. the interior is clean and very tight. Illustrated by B&W drawings, maps, and B&W era photos. CONTENT: The most famous case of fraud in science is that of Piltdown Man, a specimen consisting of a partial skull and lower jaw which were once purported to belong to a prehistoric human ancestor. Its discovery was announced in 1912, but it was not until the 1950s that Piltdown Man was proved to be a fraud. There have been many hypotheses as to the perpetrator or perpetrators of this sophisticated hoax. On the night of December 18, 1912, a packed meeting of the Geological Society of London listened to Charles Dawson, a rural lawyer and an amateur geologist, make an exciting announcement: he had found evolution's missing link in an old gravel pit near Piltdown Common. Together with Arthur Smith Woodward, Keeper of Geology at the British Museum and a noted authority on prehistoric archaeology, Dawson had discovered the shattered remnants of a thick, human-like skull together with a simian jaw--the fossils of a strange creature halfway between apes and human beings. Though debates raged over reconstructing Piltdown Man from these remains, few doubted their authenticity--and it was not until forty years later that further tests proved they were an elaborate fake. Written by anthropologist Frank Spencer, Piltdown tells the story of this incredible hoax, the greatest forgery in the history of modern science. Spencer begins by taking us back to the debates in Edwardian Britain over the antiquity of Homo sapiens and the public excitement over the search for the missing link between apes and human beings. He recounts Dawson's initial "discovery" of the shattered skull, the further dramatic finds made with Woodward in the midst of the furious scientific debate over Piltdown Man, and the great public argument between Woodward and Arthur Keith over the reconstruction of the head (Keith, an anatomist and Conservator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, won fame by promoting his own theory of a very human-like version of the Piltdown skull). Spencer also traces the increasing confusion and doubt over Piltdown Man as later archaeological discoveries were made in Africa and China: the Piltdown Man didn't seem to fit the emerging picture of human evolution, and an ever-larger number of scientists claimed that the jaw did not belong with the skull. Finally, he captures the dramatic uncovering of the hoax, closely following anthropologist Joseph Weiner's fascinating investigation in 1953. Weiner--troubled by the inconsistencies of Piltdown Man--revealed that the remains consisted of a modern human skull and the jaw of an orangutan, treated with chemicals to simulate great age and planted at the Piltdown site. Yet the question of who perpetrated the forgery has remained to the present day. Certainly Dawson, a rural solicitor who craved a great scientific reputation, was intimately involved. But who provided the tremendous expertise behind the hoax, and why would such a learned authority risk his career on a highly public fake? Was it Woodward, the great archaeologist most closely associated with the find? Keith, the prominent anatomist? Or was it Teilhard de Chardin, the French priest who found a critical tooth at the site? Spencer draws on original documents from the archives of the British Museum and other sources to identify the missing conspirator, in a startling and convincing revelation. Compelling and authoritative, Piltdown offers a gripping account of this great hoax and the final word on one of the deepest mysteries of modern science., Oxford University Press/Natural History Museum Publications, 1990, 4.5, London : HarperCollins, 2003. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust wrapper, now mylar-sleeved. Particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description: xxvii, 382 p., [16] p. of col. plates : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 25 cm. Portrait of the author on dust jacket. Includes bibliographical references (p. 365-374) and index. Subjects: Banks, Joseph (1743-1820). Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa - History. Explorers - Great Britain ; Biography., London : HarperCollins, 2003, 0<

2003, ISBN: 0007122330

Gebundene Ausgabe, Erstausgabe

[EAN: 9780007122332], Gebraucht, guter Zustand, [PU: HarperCollins, London], AFRICANA EXPLORATION MUNGO PARK BURCKHARDT TIMBUKTU ILLUST HISTORY, Jacket, THE GATES OF AFRICA Death, Discove… Mehr…

[EAN: 9780007122332], Gebraucht, guter Zustand, [PU: HarperCollins, London], AFRICANA EXPLORATION MUNGO PARK BURCKHARDT TIMBUKTU ILLUST HISTORY, Jacket, THE GATES OF AFRICA Death, Discovery and the Search for Timbuktu. Anthony Sattin. Harper Collins, London 2003 First edition. ISBN 0007122330 382pp Illustrated Hardback. This copy has some typical age toning to page edges (paper!) but this does not encroach upon the page. The unclipped dust wrapper is in mint condition. This copy is from the library of the historian Philip Beale and has been signed by the author. Africa was the last continent to yield its secrets for two reasons. It was deadly. Few who ventured beyond the coasts returned. (Malaria was not understood until 1897.) And Europeans could extract Africa's riches without incurring the risk of proceeding beyond the coasts. Those few who accepted that risk and returned to report what they found gave us books that will never be equalled. It is this uniquely rich literature that Sattin has tapped into. As Alan Moorehead framed his books about African explorers around the story of resolving the 'riddle of the Nile' and Charles Miller his account of European engagement with Kenya around the building of the Uganda Railway, Sattin has used for his narrative theme the story of the African Association that sponsored explorers. Its founding members' names are unknown to us today. In Georgian London they were a band of dilettanti dedicated to nothing other than geography, who met in spacious drawing rooms to debate the implications of the letter just received from Mungo Park, who explored the Gambia, Senegal and Niger Rivers in 1795-6 and 1805-6, or John Ludwig Burckhardt, who was the first European to see Abu Simbel in modern times. As we read of the proceedings of the African Association we wonder how many participated because they sensed that they were contributing to something that would endure. Sattin has given us the entire picture. We relive their lives, their times and, above all, the adventures of the brave men they sponsored in this well researched and wonderfully written and informative book. Ref EE1, Books<