E.T. Hall; Discovered Piltdown Man Hoax, Shroud of Turin’s Age

E.T. Hall, the Oxford University professor whose scientific analysis helped to expose the Piltdown Man hoax and determine the age of the Shroud of Turin, has died at 77.

Hall, who founded and directed the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art at Oxford, died Aug. 11, his family said. The cause of death was not announced.

Hall was a leading authority on archeometry, a discipline that employs radiocarbon dating and other techniques to authenticate archeological discoveries. His laboratory helped to uncover many frauds.

He was best known for his work on Piltdown Man. Apparently discovered in a gravel pit in southern England in 1912, it was once thought to be a “missing link” in evolution. Its skull had human features, but the jaw appeared to be more related to apes.

Later archeological discoveries raised suspicions about Piltdown Man, and Hall provided damning evidence. In 1953, he used X-ray fluorescence techniques to prove that the bones had been stained with potassium dichromate to make them look fossilized. Hall also discovered iron filings that indicated the teeth of an orangutan’s jawbone had been filed to make them appear more human.

Other investigations suggested that the perpetrator of the fraud was amateur archeologist Charles Dawson, but various theories pinned the blame on others, including Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle and British anatomist Arthur Keith.

In a letter to the scientific journal Nature in 1994, Hall disclosed that the British Museum’s custody of the Piltdown skull nearly frustrated his tests, but the quick, nondestructive nature of his new X-ray florescence analysis helped get around the museum’s concerns.

“Indeed, these analyses were probably the very first practical use of XRF for either academic or commercial purposes,” he said.

Hall also was part of a team of scientists from Oxford, the University of Arizona and the University of Zurich that analyzed the Shroud of Turin in 1988, using an advanced form of carbon-14 dating on two postage stamp-sized samples.

The cloth has been venerated because it is believed to be the burial shroud of the crucified Jesus and bears an image thought to be the imprint of his body. The Roman Catholic Church asked three teams of investigators to use scientific methods to authenticate its origins. Hall’s researchers, using technology he helped develop, said they were “95% certain” that the shroud dated from between 1260 and 1390.

“Some people may continue to fight for the authenticity of the shroud, like the Flat Earth Society, but this settles it all as far as we are concerned,” Hall said, flatly declaring it to be a medieval forgery.

Born in London, Hall was educated at Eton College and Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in 1953. He was a trustee of the British Museum and the National Gallery and was an honorary fellow of the British Academy.