In the wake of giants

Most epic poetry or ancient legends repeatedly mention the existence of giants, often endowed with mythical, supernatural powers. The cyclopses of the Greek narratives, Goliath from the bible, giants appearing to Andean Indians. Were there any such beings who provided the basis for these beliefs, or is it just a matter of the imagination?

The picture is for illustration purpose only. (Source: flickr.com / Kieran Lynam, License: CC BY 2.0, License link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/; Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/17568422@N00/523340988)

For the man of today, the idea that giants exist often seems childish, although there are many facts to suggest that there is indeed a basis for the ancient beliefs that mention such cases. The first evidence is provided by giant skeletal finds that appear from time to time, which, despite their extraordinary nature, in most cases end up in a museum warehouse after excavation, or are simply buried back. Yet over time, there have been more than a hundred acceptable records of such finds!

As an example, in June 1931, a more than 3-meter long human remains were excavated near Lake Humboldt in Nevada (Lovelock Cave) {Lovelock Review-Miner's June 19, 1931}. An additional 2.5 m high skeletons were found in the area. A particular interest of the story that there is a legend among the Paiute Indians who have lived in the area since ancient times, according to which there was a race of ancient giants with whom their tribe fought.

According to the tale, the conflict was ended by trapping the giants in a cave, releasing a torrent of arrows on them, and then burning the cave. Astonishingly there were also many arrowheads and burn marks around the finds in the Lovelock Cave!

One of the extremely large skulls found there, still intact can be seen in the collection of the Humboldt Museum. Reports of a number of additional finds that exceed 3.6-4 meters in height, and even skeletons of 7 and more than 10 meters have been unearthed, according to some sources, but much of the analysis and photos of these are fake. Apart from these, it is a fact that there are many similar finds in different parts of the world, the existence of which is therefore indisputable.

Even today, there are particularly tall people with significantly larger-than-average sizes. In the XX. century (and according to the Guinness Book of Records, the tallest man in the world ever lived) was Robert Wadlow (1918-1940), who in his last measurement (June 27, 1940) proved to be 2.72 meters tall and 199 kg. In its case, as in most extremely tall people, giant growth (acromegaly) is unfortunately caused by a disease, namely that the pituitary gland (pituitary gland) produces excessive amounts of growth hormone due to a benign tumor lesion. Patients with this disorder also known as gigantism grow for the rest of their lives, often suffer from joint (especially knee) pain due to maintaining a large weight, and die at a relatively young age.

Robert Wadlow (Source: flickr.com / Paille; 22 février 1918, License: CC BY-SA 2.0, License link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/; Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paille-fr/24559019804)

It is worth mentioning that the tallest woman in the world was Sandy Allan, who reached a height of 2.31 meters.

Based on all these facts, it can be assumed that the giants of ancient and ancient legends and stories may be based on the existence of real persons. Of particular interest, for example, is that the Bible's description of the struggle between David and Goliath revealed that, Goliath (who was said to be nearly 2 m 90 cm tall) was visually impaired.

David and Goliath - line art (Source: pixabay.com / Gordon Johnson; modified: Richárd Seres-Nagy; License: Pixabay License (Free for commercial use; No attribution required); License link: https://pixabay.com/service/license/; Link: https://pixabay.com/vectors/david-goliath-line-art-prophet-man-5178943/)

Blurred or double vision may appear as a symptom of acromegaly. Such facts may lead to the conclusion that the story can also be based on real events!

May 2020