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