Calaveras Skull

The Calaveras skull is a human skull that was believed by many, in the later part of the 19th century and into the 20th century, to be evidence of Pliocene Man in North America. It was initially dated to the Pliocene yet after testing the date was found to be much younger. Years later, locals who were involved in creating the hoax helped begin to clear up some of the mystery and confusion that surrounded the skull. This, in conjunction with the help from scientists and researchers, determined that the Calaveras skull was a hoax.

The Calaveras Skull, from William Henry Holmes' preliminary debunking of it.

History

The provenance of the Calaveras Skull is one of the aspects of the Calaveras skull that is debated. There are a few main trails of ownership that seem to be the most widely accepted.

Timeline One

The first starts February 25, 1866 when workers for James Mattison removed a skull from a mining shaft at Angel's Camp in Bald Mountain, Calaveras County, CA. James Mattison then gave the skull to R. C. Scribner who was a merchant and agent for Wells, Fargo and Company at Angel’s Camp. Scribner then passed the skull on to William Jones, a physician at Murphy’s, who, upon receiving the skull, notified J D Whitney, the State Geologist of California and a Professor of geology at Harvard University. The skull was encrusted with sediment so Whitney cleaned the skull with the help of Jefferies Wyman a comparative anatomist at Harvard. Whitney announced the discovery on July 16, 1866 at a meeting of the California Academy of Science

Timeline Two

The second starts sometime in 1865 with E. H. Schaeffle from Murphy's, CA. In 1901 he wrote to Putnam who, at the time, was at Angel's Camp restudying the skull's origin. Schaeffle claimed that in 1865 there were a number of Indian skulls that were being found during a dig the company did at a spring in Salt Springs Valley. One of these skulls supposedly went to Dr. James Kelley. Kelley had the skull in office on the Cap Hanford Lumber Yard for a time. This skull was black from the black earth that it was dug from. The skull disappeared from Kelley's office and eventually resurfaced in the possession of R. C. Scribner. In this timeline Scribner stole the skull and sent it to William Jones with the story of James Mattison finding it at Bald Hill. Jones then held onto the skull along with others that were found while mining until J D Whitney took the skull from the rest. Whitney wanted to look in the shaft it was supposedly found in and do further research because he believed the story that Jones was told and that the skull was proof of early humankind in North America.

Pseudo-archaeological Narrative

J D Whitney and later Putnam believed that the skull was evidence of the earliest human fossil in North America. Whitney believed the skull to be that of a Pliocene age (add link) dispite many locals involved in the mining operation were aware that the skull was a hoax and was a part of a prank. However the belief in the validity of the skull was shared by many in the scientific community and after Whitney's announcement July 16 1899 fueled much scientific literature as well as media and religious-oriented publications. There are still many who believe the story of the skull despite evidence that is a hoax.

When Putnam went back to re-research the origin of the skull it was uncovered that there may have been two different skulls involved in this hoax. there was one that was a skull that was black, having been dyed by the soil it was removed from, that Schaeffle claimed was from the Salt Springs Valley, however the skull that was studied at Harvard by Whitney and later tested by others was white and carbonate-encrusted There was also a radiocarbon analysis using both conventional decay and accelerator mass spectrometry done on the skull that revealed the age to be less than 1000 years old.

Conservative Christians

There are some extremely conservative christians that use the Calaveras skull as evidence that mankind has existed for an extended period of time unchanged by evolution.

Those in support and against the story of the Calaveras Skull

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Supporters of Skull story

Whitney: believed that the skull had been found by a miner,James Mattison, and was evidence of Pliocene Man in North America

Putnam: believed the skull was genuine and represented the oldest known record of humankind in America

Dall:examined the Calaveras skull story and believed that there were enough scientists who believed the information to be sufficient and saw no reason to doubt the origin

Holmes(1899):at this time had reviewed the information that was in circulation within the scientific community on both the skull and other evidence for humankind in California and saw no reason to doubt the validity

Merriam: was sympathetic to Whitney and Putnam yet was still skeptic and wanted more proof through his own study on the gravel from the mine the skull was found in

Wilson: questioned the validity of the claim that the skull had been planted in the mine

Conservative Christians: used the story of the skull to support anti-evolutionary beliefs

Against the Skull story

Harte

Many locals

San Fran paper

GF Becker-fossil

Evening Star

Blake

Holmes(1901)

Schaeffle

The Calaveras Prospect

GJME d’Aquin

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The skull had been found 130 ft below surface and beneath a stratum of lava. Chemical analysis proved that the skull was fossilized. Gravel in the shaft (lava gravel) stained red blue and white not black

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References

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