There Were Giants in Those Days: article from West Virginia

I picked this article up in Facebook, where someone had shared it, and told that this is near their house. It looks like the article had been found using search words. Some of the newspaper article databases are actually searchable, using some sort of OCR. Here's the article's text:

There Were Giants in Those Days

Wheeling, W. Va., Feb. 26. -- while digging a grave on Trace Fork, Lincoln county, a few days ago, the bones of a human being of gigantic stature and proportions were exhumed. The skeleton is in a good state of preservation and the outlines of the frame sufficiently defined to determine that the stature of the person must have been nine or ten feet. The skull and other bones also indicate prodigious size. No one now living has any knowledge of the grave or its occupant, and all indications point to its belonging to some prehistoric race of giants contemporary with mastadons, fossil remains of which have been found in many parts of the country.

Arizona Rebublican. (Phoenix, Ariz.), 27 Feb. 1892. Chronicling Amierca: Historic Am
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020558/1892-02-27/ed-1/seq-2/

Giants' Skeletons Found in Mexico

Giants' Skeletons Found

Cave in Mexico Gives Up the Bones of an Ancient Race

Special to the New York Times

Boston, May 3. -- Charles C. Clapp, who has recently returned from Mexico, where he has been in charge of Thomas W. Lawson's mining interestes, has called the attention of Prof. Agassiz to a remarkable discovery made by him.

He found in Mexico a cave containing some 200 skeletons of men each above eight feet in height. The cave was evidently the burial place of a race of giants who antedated the Aztecs. Mr. Clapp arranged the bones of one of these skeletons and found the total length to be 8 feet 11 inches. The femur reached up to his thigh, and the molars were big enough to crack a cocoanut. The head measured eighteen inches from front to back.

The Red Queen of Palenque

The red queen of Palenque is an interesting figure from Mexico. She also had an elongated skull, much like the skulls found in Paracas, Peru. She was said to have been 1.54 m tall, so she was not by any means a giant.

She was a highly respected person, buried in an important part of a temple. She was buried with many items of jewelry and a sort of headband of green stones on her head.

Here is a picture of her elongated skull. Source

Here are History Channel's reconstructions based on her skull. If she is related to the Paracas individuals, she may very well have had red hair, as opposed to black hair. The black hair is an assumption, based on the color of the hair of the vast majority of people in that region. Source

Here is the History Channel documentary about the Red Queen of Palenque in YouTube. (This is a multi part series. Open it in YouTube to see all the episodes)

Here is an article by the History Channel about the making of the documentary.

The Dolichocephalous Skulls of Malta

Image source: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_maltaskulls_1.htm

Malta has its own history of a megalithic period, accompanied by the cone-headed people, who seem to turn up all around the world where megalithic structures are found.

 The Hypogeum of Hal Salflienti, in Malta. Source: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_malta02.htm

This blog article mentions a megalithic temple, where men of unusual cranial capacity were buried. This place is also known as "The Hypogeum of Hal Salflienti". This blog article has several good pictures of the hypogeum.

Looking at the picture of these skulls, you can also see the missing sagittal suture, very much like the Paracas conehead skulls of Peru.

The modern population of Malta are largely related to the Arabs and speak a Semitic language related to Arabic. However, in the past, there have obviously been other cultures there. The article says that in Malta, there was a culture there that was worshipping "the mother goddess" from 4100-2500 BC. The date 2500 BC is a key date, according to the article, which is when that culture suddenly ended.

The authors of the article associate the cone-headed race of Malta with the cone-headed race of Egypt. They go on to say that they were an aristocratic class, and only mingled with their own kind. If you look up images of Nefertiti or Tutankhamun, every depiction of them shows definite skull elongation, and increased relative cranial capacity.

Underground city with large skeleton in Missouri

This one comes from Missouri, from around 1895. Here follows the text:

A strange story comes up from Missouri. At Moberly in that state some workmen at the bottom of a coal shaft 360 feet below the surface came upon a buried city arched in by a hard and thick stratum of lava. The streets are regularly laid out and enclosed by walls of stone, which is cut and dressed in a fairly good although rude style of masonry. A hall 30x100 feet was discovered wherein were stone benches and tools of all descriptions for mechanical service. Further search disclosed statues and images made of composition closely resembling bronze but lacking luster. Of course curiosity was aroused to ascertain what kind of people dwelt in this strange city buried for centuries beneath the earth's surface. With a good deal of difficulty in removing debris the workmen finally succeeded in reaching a spot where a stone fountain was found in a wide court or street, and from it a stream of perfectly pure water was flowing, which upon being tested was found to be strongly impregnated with lime. Lying beside the fountain were portions of the skeleton of a human being  and from measurement of the bones it was concluded that when alive the figure was three times the size of an ordinary man and possessed of wonderful muscular power and quickness. The implements found in the city embrace bronze and flint knives, stone and granite hammers, metallic saws of rude workmanship but proved metal, and others of similar character. They are not so highly polished nor so accurately made as those now finished by our best mechanics, but they show skill and an evidence of an advanced civilization.

The searching party spent twelve hours in the depths, and only gave up explorations because of the oil in their lamps being low. These facts are vouched for by the recorder of the city of Moberly and the city marshal, who were of the exploring party. The story, if true, is singular, and if not true is a yarn that would have done credit to Missouri in the palmiest days of her romancing.

Here is some more information about this find.

Off an a Polynesian tangent this time

I came across this in a Wikipedia discussion:

From; Migrations, Myth and Magic from the Gilbert Islands by Rosemary Grimble
Taranga (Polynesian) lived on the sea, and when he finally decided to settle on Samoa he was surprised to find Auriaria (tall, red haired people) already there and they remained the dominant people. From Auriaria and Taranga came the Te-uribaba lineage who had beliefs against the terrible practices (human sacrifice) of the Auriaria, but did not gain power. Taburimai was a later lineage. Koura was another breakaway group but they embraced the ways of the Auriaria . Tabu-ariki, Riiki, Nei Tevenei and Nei Tituaabine are all more recent lineages that grew out of this family tree. All these people descended from the Auriaria were known as; “The Red men, with red hair and pale skin”. The first great kings of Samoa was ‘Batuku, the skull'. He was tall with a very long skull. He was of the Auriaria lineage. The food of Batuku was the heads of the people killed by his children. There came a time of boatbuilding and sailing. The children of Batuku joined with the many people from other islands – the male lineages came from Au-te-venevene, Au-te-rarangaki, Taburitokia, Kotunga, Kaburoro and Nan-Te-Buaka people. The female lineages came from Nei Bubuia, Nei Te-wa-matang, Nei Kaekea, Nei Te-wi, Nei Kiaiai and Nei Kameenono people. These people together began making boats that could sail great distances in search for food for ‘Batuku the skull', their ancestor figure. This new society was led by Kaburoro and they built a great boat. To launch it they slew many men for the rollers.

There is the recurring them here about cone-headed, red-haired giants.

Read the rest here.

Then there is a great YouTube video "New Zealand: Skeletons in the Cupboard". It is not all about giants, but they are mentioned near the end. The whole video is fascinating to watch.

 
 

A bit about the Paracas conehead race

Some background info about the Paracas skulls

There have been a number of human cultures, where head binding of infants has been a practiced as a tradition. When this is done, the infant's head is bound between two boards, so that it takes on a cone shape as it grows. Could this tradtion date back to a time when humans had interactions with this other race? One can only speculate. The Paracas elongated (conehead) skulls were not the product of cranial deformation - they were naturally that way.

The Paracas skulls were also quite a bit heavier and bigger than normal human skulls, and had quite a bit more brain capacity. The Paracas skulls also lack a sagittal suture.

Image from Wikipedia's article about the sagittal suture

Seen here above  is a normal human skull. The sagittal suture traverses down the center of the top of the head, holding the parietal plates together.

Image from the blog of L.A. Marzulli.

Seen here is the top of one of the Paracas elongated skulls. As you can see, there is no sagittal suture, unlike in a normal human skull.


Elongated skulls in other parts of the world

Ancient Egypt also has pictures and sculptures of notable people who have elongated skulls. Some of the headdresses one could imagine might have been for someone with an elongated skull. Whether or not this was from cranial deformation (head binding) or if they were related to this same race in Paracas is unknown. King Tutankhamun supposedly had an elongated skull.

Shown here is a Paracas elongated skull, with some reddish brown hair still attached to it, next to a normal human skull. Image from L.A. Marzulli's blog.

Giants in Aztec legends

Shown here is a picture of the Aztec warrior Tzilacatzin. He is said to have killed several Spanish warriors by throwing rocks at them. This picture comes from the Florentine Codex. The Aztec book, Vision de los Vencidos (The Broken Spears) by Miguel León-Portilla, also tells more about Tzilacatzin.

The caption below tells what is happening here. The Quinametzin are a race of giants described in Aztec lore. Many of the important Azetec cities are said to have been founded by Quinametzin. The Wikipedia article tells a little about this.

More information is to follow about the Aztecs and their giant lore to follow, as I gather information together.

The Cardiff Giant Hoax

Image source: http://skepdic.com/graphics/cardiffgiant.jpg

According to Wikipedia and other articles online, the Cardiff Giant was a large gypsum sculpture created by George Hull in 1869 and "found" while he was digging a well. In a time when lots of people were actually finding bones of unusually large people, especially in Ohio, I suppose he must have wanted a piece of the action. After all, one could make good money in the late 1800's with an interesting archaeological find. People liked "freak shows" during that era. According to Wikipedia, Mr. Hull was claimed to have been an atheist, and created the sculpture as a response to an argument he had in a church about the validity of Genesis 4.

One dead giveaway for me is to see the sculpted hair. Hair quite often survives, in the case of mummified remains. If the body is decomposed down to only the bones, then no trace of the hair is usually found. Hair can sometimes survive burial if it is in the presence of brass, copper, or silver, as the oxides coming off the metals will preserve organic matter in its immediate vicinity. So if you ever find something of metal, take all the organic matter from around it and inspect it carefully. You will never know what you might find.

Interestingly, the article earlier in this blog had claims in it that putrefied flesh was found attached to the giant. So this must have been a quite elaborate hoax. However, one cannot substitute a gypsum sculpture for a real fossil and fool the specialists in the field.

Link to what Wikipedia says about the find.

Most of what is posted in this blog appear to be quite valid archaeological finds. These finds are not limited to the US. Other finds have been show to occur in the Caucasus, the Middle East, Sardinia, France, India, Africa, etc. I didn't expect a find to turn up as a hoax, but then why would I be suprised?

Skeletons of Giants in Alaska

SKELETONS OF GIANTS IN ALASKA
Ancient Cemetery Uncovered in the Atlin Gold District.
Special Dispatch to The Call. VANCOUVER, Nov. 17.— James L. Ferkinson, an American miner of Atlin, arrived here today with news of the finding of a number of skeletons in an ancient Indian cemetery in the north, which is of startling scientific interest. Perkinson is one of the owners of the Yellow Ja cket, a rich claim which is supposed to be the fountain head of Pine, the principal creek in Atlin district. Two weeks ago the first excavations were being made for a new tunnel on the property and what appears to have been an old Indian burying ground was opened up.

Five skeletons, nearly complete, were exhumed and each is the set of bones that belonged to a giant of prehistoric times. One of the skeletons measures over seven feet in length, so that the man must have been considerably over that height. Then there were two others of within an inch of seven feet and the remaining two were more than six feet in length and the men were of gigantic frame.

The altitude is high and the ground was half frozen, so that the bones were preserved almost intact. Perkinson says that he expects if they had kept on digging they would have found many more, as these were lying comparatively close together. The bones of the fingers and toes bad crumbled away, but the finger of one skeleton hand was sufficiently strong to hold a ring of what appears to be lead or some similar base metal. The skeletons were unusually well formed, but one unique feature was that the arms were several inches shorter than ordinarily appears, while the size of the bones of the forearm was enormous in comparison to the usual models.

Beside two of the skeletons were spears, rudely shaped with a soft metal and pointed with sharp stones. The spears were only about three feet long and five inches thick at the top. tapering at the lower end. The top contained a socket into which a wooden shaft was notably placed, in order to wield the big piece of metal. Other pieces of stone and carved metal were found. The general physical appearance of the skeletons, according to the cursory examination of the miners, was similar to that of the Indians of the present day. They were certainly of the flathead type of the present northern tribes. That the burying place Is of ancient origins evidenced by the fact that the Indians say none of their tribesmen have lived within fifty miles of this place as far back as stories have been handed down. There are several mounds, presumably made by the Indians, in the vicinity of the new mine tunnel now being extended.

Source:  San Francisco Call, Volume 87, Number 171, 18 November 1900

Mummified Giant found near San Diego, California

This is one of the most famous giant find articles. There also exists a more high quality picture in the black and white photo technology of those times (late 1800's). The article is from October 6, 1895. Although the title suggests that this is the "biggest giant ever found", there have been much bigger ones found.

"Monster Skulls and Bones" article from Cartersville, Georgia, USA. April 5, 1886

The article was picked at random from a Google image search of "Giant bones New York". There are literally thousands of these articles from about 1850-1920, so I won't run out of them for a few years.

I think I will try to start transcribing the texts of these articles so that they are searchable. I am pretty good at typing - at my best I was 90 wpm. So here goes:

Monster Skulls and Bones
Cartersville, Ga, April 4. - The water has receded from the Tumlin Mount Field, and has left uncovered acres of skulls and bones. Some of these are gigantic. If the whole frame is in proprtion to two thigh bones that were found, their owner must have stood 14 feet high. Many curious ornaments of shell, brass and stone have been found. Some of the bodies were buries in small vaults built of stones. The whole makes a mine of archaelogical wealth. A representative of the Smithsonian Institution is here investigating the curious relics.

The New York Times
Published April 5, 1886
Copyright (C) The New York Times

Most interesting here is the mention of brass ornaments. 14 feet is almost 427 cm.

An older account, Flavius Josephus

From Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 2.3: 125

From there they moved their camp to Hebron, taking this by storm, they killed everyone. There yet survived the race of the giants. In the size of their bodies and appearance they were unlike other people; they were astonishing to see and terrible to hear of. Even now their bones, which are unlike those that have come to our knowledge, are displayed.

Flavius Josephus was a Romano-Jewish historian, who lived from 37- c. 100 (Wikipedia: "Josephus") You can read Josephus online here.

Large skeleton found in Tampa Bay area, Florida

Here's a link to the original blog article. 

The article states that the remains were those of a "Garib" Native American. (Carib) This I disagree with. I believe these remains were of the same ethnic group as those labelled as the "Adena" in Ohio. (or "Adena Mound Builders") The Carib are still around in the form of their descendants, the Arawak. Link to Wikipedia article about the Island Carib people. The remains also could not be Seminole or Miccosukee (Everglades Muskogee Native Americans). I have seen plenty of these guys, and they are not giants, just normal-sized humans.

Notice how the bones were sent to the Smithsonian "for their examination".

The original blog article did not have any date, but the file name had this information in it: World Journal, August 25, 1927

Strange Skeletons Found

This clip was found on an interesting blog article here at this link.

Transcription: (from later edit)
MADISON, Wis., May 3.---The discovery of several skeletons of human beings while excavating a mound at Lake Delevan indicates that a heretofore unknown race of men once inhabited Southern Wisconsin. Information of the discovery was brought to Madison today by Marurice Morrissey of Delevan, who came here to attend a meeting of the Republican State Central committee. Curator Charles E. Brown of the State Historical Museum will investigate the discoveries within a few days.

Upon opening one large mound at Lake Lawn farm, eighteen skeletons were discovered by the Phillips Brothers. The heads, presumably those of men, are much larger than the heads of any race which inhabit America today. From directly over the eye sockets, the head slopes straight back and the nasal bones protrude far above the cheek bones. The jaw bones are long and pointed, bearing a minute resemblance to the head of the monkey. The teeth in the front of the jaw are regular molars.

There were also found in the mounds the skeletons, presumabley of women, which had smaller heads, but were similar in facial characteristics. The sksletons were embedded in charcoal and covered over with layers of baked clay to shed water from the sepulchra.

The New York Times
Published: May 4, 1912
 

Large fossilized human remains found in Ohio. Article from Nov. 17, 1869

The article says that the body was 10 ft. 2 in. (3 m. 10cm) long from head to toe, and still had rotting flesh on it. It was found at a depth of 2.5 feet, or 76.2 cm, when someone was trying to dig a well. There have been many such finds in Ohio, largely attributed to the "Adena" culture, who left behind many mounds and structures.

Here's the link the original article, in a somewhat more reading-friendly format.