‘Ancient’ Greta could be
‘Oldest skull ever found in Britain’ revealed to be nothing of the sort...
IT was hailed as one of the great archeological finds. In 1943, submerged in the soil of a Staffordshire quarry, a human skull was discovered that, experts believed, dated back to the dawn of mankind 14,000 years ago.
A mammoth tooth close to the remains added weight to the belief.
That made the skull, christened Greta, the oldest ever found in Britain – and among the world’s most ancient female skeletal remains. The press dubbed her “the Eve of England”.
Now, the Birmingham Post can reveal the truth.
Greta is a hoax, possibly the greatest hoax since the Piltdown Man paleoanthropological fraud of 1912. And there’s compelling evidence it was orchestrated by the same individuals.
The skull story made global headlines when it was found at Branston Gravel Pits near Burton upon Trent, but Greta was lost after the town museum closed over four decades ago.
It was anthropologist David Adkins who tracked her down, hidden from public view, at The Potteries Museum in Stoke.
Since 2019, a raft of scientists and institutions, including Durham and Oxford Universities and the Francis Crick Institute in London, have been studying the skull to put some flesh on the bone in regard to a precise timeline of when Greta walked this Earth.
But the carbon dating results are a bombshell.
Greta died between 1041 and 1163. She was probably there for the Norman Conquest. A fracture on the skull may even have been inflicted during skirmishes with the invaders. But 14,000 years old she is not. Adkins has taken the information on the chin and is excited that he may have unearthed one of the great historical con tricks.
He said: “It was a bit like being hit in the face with a snowball – only to find it was a snowball full of diamonds.
“It was surprising to find the carbon dating did not show Greta was Mesolithic or even prehistoric – but that she was much more recent and dated from around the time of the Conquest.
“So, far from being a prehistoric hunter-gatherer, Greta was almost certainly an Anglo-Norman living a life recognisable to us today.
“She would have probably witnessed the Conquest – if she was British – and we can possibly speculate that the healed depression fracture above her left eye was caused by the skirmishes of 1066.”
The news has spawned a real mystery – and a fresh investigation.
The hunt is now on to discover if the skull was deliberately planted to make it seem thousands of years older than it actually was. David believes so.
He admitted: “I had set out to place Greta next to Cheddar Man, but instead she has ended up more like Piltdown Man. In fact, did Greta actually represent a Piltdown Woman?”
Cheddar Man is a genuine fossilised male skeleton, found in the Cheddar Gorge in 1903, that dates back to 7100BC.
Piltdown Man was, put simply, a wind-up. In 1912, Charles Dawson claimed that he had discovered the “missing link” between ape and man – bone fragments believed to be 500,000 years old.
Forty years later, the discovery was exposed as a fossil forgery – a combination of orangutan and human remains.
I had set out to place Greta next to Cheddar Man, but instead she has ended up more like Piltdown Man Anthropologist David Adkins
Greta is the result of a similar prank, Adkins believes.
He explained: “The circumstances surrounding the burial were not typical for the medieval period. It just didn’t seem to add up – all the evidence pointed to Greta being prehistoric.
“The discovery was a scientific sensation in 1943 and received national attention in the media, conferences and lectures. So how did all of this happen – and why? How was this myth created?
“When I went back to the original evidence, an anthropological bombshell exploded. The more the evidence was scrutinised, the more it became clear that the whole discovery of Greta could have been a hoax.
“The more I considered the carbon date for Greta against the circumstances of her discovery, the more I saw a likeness to the infamous Piltdown Man case.
“The more I studied the evidence, the more I became convinced that Greta should, indeed, be renamed Piltdown Woman.
“Firstly, the location and manner of burial is very unusual for the medieval or Anglo-Norman period. Everything pointed to a prehistoric water burial which, of course, fitted the evidence perfectly.
“There were even animal bones found in the same spot – and one of these had been kept with Greta, in the same box, at Stoke Museum.
“The animal bone was almost certainly a metatarsal from a cow or deer. Animal bones are common finds in Mesolithic graves and so the possibility arose that these bones, together with the skeleton, were ‘planted’ in the same spot for the gravel pit workers to find.
“If so, then where did Greta originally come from? Was the body removed from a churchyard or cemetery somewhere else – probably years or even decades earlier?
“In those days it was relatively easy to obtain human remains, so she could have come from anywhere.
“There had also been extensive excavations in places like Egypt in the preceding decades and exhumed skeletons could be purchased for as little as a few pounds each.
“Greta has a very distinct flattened face when viewed from the side and this possibly raises more clues about her origin.
“The local coroner who first examined Greta correctly declared her to be ‘ancient remains’. In truth, this could have meant any ancient date, including the real medieval date of around 1066. There was no indication of them being prehistoric at all on their discovery.”
When first found, Greta was sent to Sir Arthur Keith, the foremost anthropologist of the time, who concluded she was around 10,000 years old.
Sir Arthur was at the forefront of the Piltdown Man research. He gave it credibility, even unveiling a monument to it. Without the support of Sir Arthur, the Piltdown Man hoax would almost certainly have failed. The discovery of the fossil fraud tarnished the academic’s reputation and there were even claims he was involved in the ruse.
Brilliant anthropologist Frank Spencer, who died in 1999, wrote a detailed paper implicating Sir Arthur in the hoax, but it could never be proved.
Adkins said: “Now that we know Sir Arthur Keith was heavily involved
with both Greta and Piltdown Man, does it add any weight to the belief that he was indeed responsible for the Piltdown hoax? In fact, does Project Greta finally prove that Sir Arthur Keith was indeed the Piltdown hoaxer?
“It’s a fascinating question and I wish Frank Spencer was still alive so I could ask him – I think it may just have been the smoking gun he was looking for.”
There are startling similarities between Greta and Piltdown Man.
Greta’s skull is heavily stained – so badly, it looks much more ancient than it is. Yet her clavicle – connecting the shoulder to the breastplate – was not.
The Piltdown skull was also heavily stained with a mixture of chemicals, including iron.
“Either Greta was stained deliberately before Sir Arthur received the skull or it was stained after he received it,” said Adkins. “If the latter is true, then it supports the belief that he was also involved with the case of Piltdown Man.
“I also noted that there was what appeared to be the outline of a mammoth engraved onto the front of the skull. It’s very faint but just about discernible – the tail with the distinctive kink is clearly visible, as is the curved trunk, body shape and rear leg.
“There are also oval shapes underneath the outline resembling the heads of human figures seen in some prehistoric cave art.
“I think it is highly probable that this mammoth etching – if that’s what it is – was added later to further enhance the hoax. Again, only Keith had access to the skull in those very early stages, although it’s impossible to say who was responsible and it could, of course, have been done by persons unknown.
“More telling is the fact that all the notes and correspondence written by Sir Arthur Keith on Greta have mysteriously disappeared. Even the papers that were due for publication vanished.
“A book written about Burton’s antiquities noted that ‘despite exhaustive enquiries’ the notes have never been found.
“This strange disappearance of Keith’s notes and letters was also seen in Piltdown Man and is another major similarity between the two cases. For all the research to disappear twice is probably beyond coincidence.”
He added: “With the benefit of a firm radio carbon date, we can now be sure that Greta was not what she was sensationally claimed to be and the similarities with Piltdown Man are too significant to ignore.
“The remains could have come from anywhere – hopefully her DNA will reveal exactly where this was.
“With the confirmation of the radio carbon date, I don’t believe that she came from Burton, or possibly even Britain, at all.”
Greta may not be one of the world’s oldest skulls, but David believes its place in history is secure – as one of the cleverest anthropological hoaxes of all time.