Proof of Giants on Earth
Were There Giants on Earth?
Humans have long expressed a mixture of fascination and fear around the question, “Were there giants on Earth?” Whether in legends or life, giants have been worshipped, reviled, ostracized, and celebrated. While the existence of dinosaurs is largely accepted, and millions of people travel across continents to marvel at majestic, larger than life monuments, the facts about human giants, or giant races, are much debated. Regardless of whether they are dismissed as myth or accepted as fact, giants represent important aspects of our individual and collective psyche. They capture our imagination, appear in religious texts, and drive scientific endeavor. But the question still remains — did giants once roam the Earth?
What Are Giants? A Brief Look at Gigantism
Merriam-Webster defines a giant as being a “legendary humanlike being of great stature and strength,” as well as “a living being of great size.” In physical terms, a giant is a person over seven feet tall with a condition known as “gigantism.” The tallest person documented modern history was Robert Wadlow (1918-1940), known as the “Alton Giant,” or the “Giant of Illinois,” who stood 8 feet 11 inches tall.
Robert Wadlow, the Alton Giant
Wadlow intended to study law, but lived as a celebrity after traveling with the Ringling Brothers Circus and as a spokesman for giant-sized shoes. He died at a young age, an all too common end for those with gigantism — their weight and size puts constant strain on the heart and skeletal system.
Today genetic giants are gaining acceptance because overall, humans have evolved into a taller species. According to Max Roser, an economist studying global standards of living conditions, between 1810 and 1980 European male height grew from an average of 160 centimeters to 185 centimeters. But despite this acceptance, giants can still find life in a normal-sized world stressful and lonely, and like Wadlow, are treated as an oddity. This contradiction mirrors the way in which giant races have been regarded throughout history.
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Archeologists Puzzled by Hundreds of Egyptian Tombs from Pre-Dynastic Era
A new discovery from ancient Egypt has been made, with more than 100 tombs found from a pre-pharaonic era.
Egyptian archeologists have unearthed more than 100 burial tombs at an ancient site in a Nile Delta province. This new find includes 68 tombs dating to the pre-dynastic period from 6,000-3,150 B.C., as well as five oval-shaped tombs from the Naqada III period that spanned from around 3,200-3,000 B.C., and 37 rectangular graves from the second intermediate period when the Hyksos people ruled ancient Egypt.
Archeologists also found human remains of adults and children and pottery in the graves, but as archeologists make significant findings like this around the world, what makes this one stand out?
