Travelers to strange lands have always been expected to bring back exciting stories. A look at medieval bestiaries or the stories of Marco Polo’s (supposed) journeys shows that western Europeans, at least, believed that just beyond their borders lay lands full of strange creatures and even stranger customs.
Pshaw, you circumnavigated the globe and only saw giants? Marco Polo at least saw giant birds!
Later explorers confirmed meeting very tall Patagonian, notably Sir Frances Drake and Anthonie Knivet, but even later explorers met the same people and only found them to be about 6’6”. This was tall for the time, but not anything most people would consider gigantic. No, when I think of giants I’m not thinking of someone who could be playing in the NBA. I’m thinking someone who can’t stand up in my house, someone who has to bend down to pick me up. There have been really tall individuals like Robert Wadlow (who who died at 22 standing at 8’11”) or Leonid Stadnyk (currently living and standing at 8’6”), people who have overactive pituitary glands and the health problems associated with them. There is even reliable documentation that there are tribes of people who regularly stand a foot higher than most humans, especially in places like South America and Africa. But what about giants? Do they exist?
Robert Wadlow
Stories abound, especially from the late 19th century, of giants dug up by workers or miners. Some of them can be easily debunked. There a report in a 1891 issue of Nature referencing a story about a giant found inside a burial mound in Ohio and a 1975 edition of the Indianapolis news which mentions another, but both of these stories were based on second hand information (the Nature article simply acknowledges it while the Indianapolis News article is talking about a giant that was discovered in 1879 and whose remains supposedly washed away in 1937). Other giants, like the Cardiff giant or a recent email regarding a giant discovered during the Indian Tsunami of 2004, are acknowledged hoaxes. (For more info on debunked giant stories and hoaxes check out the Skeptoid or archaeology.org)
Cardiff Giant
But there are still tons of stories that abound on the net. The problem with most of these is that while there are great firsthand accounts online there is very little evidence. If there were all of these giant remains around, what happened to them? And why do so many people want to believe in them? Check back here on Friday for a possible answer to both of these questions. Here’s a hint: it involves conspiracy theories. Color me surprised.