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483. The Mysterious Case of the Ape Man
Manage episode 433691450 series 3408264
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In Sussex, in 1912, men quarrying in a gravel pit near Piltdown village turned up a human skull. According to Charles Dawson, a lawyer and amateur archeologist with a remarkable track record for finding ancient treasures, it belonged to a palaeolithic man, possibly millions of years old, and was therefore the earliest trace of mankind ever found in England. Greater still, Piltdown man as he came to be known, seemed to be the ‘missing link’ between apes and men. The discovery inflamed and delighted British society, confirming and buttressing dearly held beliefs about the evolution of modern Europeans, and radically transforming understandings of the origins of humanity. In the wake of the find and the widespread corroboration of its authenticity by some of the best academics of the age, further digs were conducted in the area, which unearthed even more wondrous discoveries - a jawbone, primitive tools, and strangest of all, a cricket bat; perhaps the first hint that all was not as it seemed…was the greatest discovery of all time nothing more than an audacious and extraordinarily skilful hoax? And if so, who was the culprit in this grand mystery?
Join Tom and Dominic, as they describe the most mystifying archaeological discovery in English history, and one of the most unscrupulous tricks of all time, revealing as they do the truth behind the history of mankind.
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*The Rest Is History LIVE in the U.S.A.*
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Tom and Dominic, accompanied by a live orchestra, take a deep dive into the lives and times of two of history’s greatest composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.
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Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
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