151: Giants of the world

Here is a small list of reasonably accepted stories of giants bones being found... Some go back 100 years, others are as recent as 30 years ago.

New Zealand Giants

In Maoridom folklore are the stories of the Kahui Tipua who were giants and man eaters, fighting with the Rapuwai, and that the latter were exterminated by the ancient tribe of Waitaha. This last tribe are now claimed as an off-shoot from the Wai-taha, of the Arawa migration; but the claim appears wrong for the chiefs, Kuri and Tuahu-riri, who, it is said, left the Bay of Plenty to colonize the Middle Island, are not the ancestors of Waitaha of the South, who had been destroyed before the two chiefs were ever heard of. It seems probable that the tradition relates to the former existence of a race of men distinct from the Maori, and hence the tales about the Waero or Mohoao (bush people) whom the Maoris believe to have existed almost to the time of the Pakeha.

Micronesian Giants

In the Marianas after 1668, the native Chamorro people were reduced in numbers from an estimated 95%. After 1710 disease (brought by colonisation) effectively obliterated them as a physical group. However, the original contact record does offer some interesting information for the original natives men of the Marianas were tall, well-built and of great strength. They were of a lighter shade than Filipino’s, and larger, plumper and healthier than Europeans. Mendoza noted their light complexions were like that of the European but their bodies were as large as giants and of such great strength that one of them, while standing on the ground, has laid hold of two Spaniards of good stature seizing each of them by one foot with his hands and lifting them as easily as if they were children.

American Giants

In the 1800’s there were a plethora of hoaxes regarding giants. Cardiff New York, Beulah California, Lake Cayuga New York, Fort Benton Montana, Martindale near Yosemite Valley… - they were all ‘petrified’ and fake. While an obvious hoax; for they were no more than statues, many believed what they were told and paid good money to see them. Scepticism and a flooded market of ‘discoveries’ led to the devaluation of petrified men. Why had the petrified men succeeded at all? The belief in giants and search for evidence of them had a long history. There was a "joy in believing" increased by the weird American phenomenon that the correctness of a belief is decided by the number of people who can be induced to adopt it. (That same belief is still prevalent today and perpetuated by the American media. It seems then that America and now the rest of the world are full of easily induced idiots on all manner of topics.)

Lovelock cave, the mound discoveries and some finds elsewhere were all acknowledged discoveries that were lost either in translation or due to the inability to document evidence as can be done in the modern world. Were the finds real and covered up, or were they too like the petrified giant hoaxes?

The Paiutes had a legend of the Si-te-cah or Sai'i; a legendary tribe of red-haired cannibalistic giants. Mummified remains believed to fit the Paiute description were discovered by guano miners in Lovelock Cave in 1911. But some say the skeletons from Lovelock Cave and other dry caves in Nevada was started by entrepreneurs setting up tourist displays and that the skeletons themselves were of normal size. This could also be true as bones of ancient unknown creatures could be mistaken for large human bones. However the Paiutes did have to kill of a tribe to take their land and that tribe had red hair. There is a woman who still has some of this hair handed down from generation to generation. She did not mention anything about them being exceedingly tall.

California (specifically)

On the west coast however, are a number of very credible stories of tall skeletons being found, some up to 2 ½ metres under the surface. Oakland 2016, a skeleton of about 8’. Santa Barbara Channel Islands 1912. A skeleton of around 7’4”. As fra back as 1780, when California still belonged to Spain a giant skeleton was found on a hill (mound) on the Baja peninsula. Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco in 1899 many ancient skeletons around 7’6” were found. Burton Mound Santa Barbara 1923, a large skeleton was found 4’ underground. It was very old and fragile but the skull and jaw were exceedingly large with large protruding brow and sloping forehead. Santa Catalina 1937 a skeletons of 7’3”. There was talk over 3000 giant skeletons. However, I’ve seen these photos shown as evidence - the skulls are of normal size but perspective photos easily mislead some. Some found had missing vertebrae, or missing parts of skulls and all this accuracy seems to suggest the finds realistic. Seri Island in the Gulf of California had many at 7’ living at the time of the Spaniards. In all cases the weapons were stone or obsidian and many were buried injured or maimed. Obviously fighting and war was common. The list of California discoveries goes on and on but most are plausible 7”6”-8” skeletons. Anything near 9”+ is consigned to fairy tales without accepted evidence of 8” skeletons being produced to the modern world. All these finds seemed to suggest a people or races lived here long before those we now know as Native Americans; after all, their own legends talk of having to kill giants to take the land they lived upon for themselves.

Petroglyphs in the area of the Lava Beds National Monument in California are estimated to be between 2000-6000 years old and very different to those produced by more recent tribes of 500-1700AD. That suggests a lot.

Hawaii Giants

Skeletons of two giants were reportedly found on the island of Maui, in 1989, in lava caves near Olowalu. We had a post on that - http://tangatawhenua16.wixsite.com/the-first-ones-blog/single-post/2019/05/23/Sidestep

French Giant

Castlenau was were fragment of large human bones were found in 1890. Keep in mind all these discoveries were during a time where finding ‘giants’ was ‘fashionable’. Georges Vacher de Lapouge’s bones were real enough though. The bones suggested a height of over 9’. The bones were sent to Paris and disappeared.

Rome's 'giant'?

A skeleton of someone (regarded as a giant at 6’8”) was found in 2012. This one suffered from ‘gigantism’. What needs to be noted is that 6’8” would seem enormous to a human-being of 2000 years ago were the average height was only 5’6”. Today modern man has produced many tall living men over 7”. It shows people lived that were far greater in stature to those around them.

These days the tallest man living is Sultan Kösen who measured 251 cm (8 ft 2.8 in) in Ankara, Turkey, on 08 February 2011. There are many more stories, all public and accepted at the time but very difficult to verify these days. Most photo’s are old, grainy, suspicious looking. Others showed skeletons with no reference point with the exception of a man with a shovel far behind making the skeleton look bigger in perspective. We’ve already shown how this trick works with a skull in South America.

*****

Overall there seems to be a general acceptance that some of the stories are true, but without solid physical evidence who can believe it without some doubt? A single photo means nothing in this day and age and those sites that show one photo; just one view, are all fake.

But multiple photo’s with angles, some with modern instruments for comparative focus, along with video to support the photos, is the only evidence that would start a worldwide frenzy. So far, no such evidence has been forthcoming. We hope to change that.

Sure we have one femur shaft verified to belongs to a human being that is much older than 800 years that equates to between 7'10 - 8'2"...

...but it's not a whole skeleton. Most will likely only believe a tall pre-Polynesian race existed in NZ before Polynesians came when we produce not just one, but many tall skeletons.

Be Patient.