Did you know…?
Giants once roamed the Earth.
In the winter of 1890, French anthropologist Georges Vacher de Lapouge was working at a dig at a Bronze-age cemetery in the tiny town of Castelnau-le-nez, France. There, at the bottom of the burial mound, de Lapouge unearthed a set of bones that made him stop in his tracks. The fossilized remains, dating to the Neolithic period, were of a human that would have been 11 ½ feet tall.
De Lapouge published pictures of the fossilized humerus, tibia, and femoral mid-shaft bones next to a normal humerus in the journal La Nature and described the bones in detail:
“I think it unnecessary to note that these bones are undeniably human, despite their enormous size …. The first is the middle part of the shaft of a femur, 14 cm length, almost cylindrical in shape, and the circumference of the bone is 16 cm …. The second piece is the middle and upper part of the shaft of a tibia …. The circumference is 13 cm at the nutrient foramen … the length of fragment is 26 cm …. The third, very singular, was regarded by good anatomists as the lower part of a humerus …. The volumes of the bones were more than double the normal pieces to which they correspond. Judging by the usual intervals of anatomical points, they also involve lengths almost double …. The subject would have been a likely size of 3m, 50.”
These bones represent the largest human ever known to have existed. The bones of the so-called Giant of Castelnau were sent to the University of Montpelier to be further studied, where it was determined that they represented “a very tall race.”
Although the scientists would not firmly say whether this was indicative of a race of giants or just one individual of abnormal growth, a discovery in 1894 close to Castelnau seems to prove the former. While excavating a water reservoir in Montpelier, France, workers unearthed a prehistoric cemetery that contained remains of a number of human giants. Skulls 28, 31, and 32 inches in circumference were reported as well as other bones of gigantic size, indicating a race of men between 10 and 15 feet in height.
The findings from both sites were reported in science magazines and newspapers—even The New York Times—before being sent to the Paris Academy for further study. Amazingly, not a word about them has been written since. The race of giants from Old Gaul remains one of the great archeological mysteries to this day.
Did you also know…?
- World History
- Giants once roamed the Earth.
- The country of Andorra fought World War 1 for 25 years.
- If it hadn’t been for the Marquis de Sade, The French Revolution might not have been won.
- Only one of the Seven Wonders of the World still exists.
- The British started a war over an ear.
- Bulgarians have deemed the chushkopek the most important invention of the twentieth century.
- Neanderthals were gum chewers.
- The shortest war in history lasted 38 minutes.
- Marie Antoinette was misquoted.
- September 3, 1752, never happened.
- Ancient Romans believed onions, human hair, and fish could calm thunderbolts.
- Christianity was banned in Japan until 1854.