Giant human skeletons

Lore & Background

Throughout the 19th century, hundreds of newspaper articles credulously described purported discoveries of giant skeletons, sometimes with anatomical irregularities attributed to the Nephilim from the Book of Genesis. For example, a massive skeleton unearthed in Tennessee toured the state as a specimen of a lost race, reconstructed on a timber frame with missing bones recreated from wood and rawhide, and estimated up to twenty feet tall. When taken to New Orleans, medical doctor William Carpenter identified it as a young mastodon's remains, noting no fraud but a widespread desire to believe. The mastodon ceased to be exhibited as a person, but other purported giants continued to be unearthed, exhibited, reported, or sold for profit.

Reader's Guide

The significance of giant skeleton reports lies in their role in North American settler mythology. During the 19th century, European settlers embraced myths of a prehistoric lost white race that built the massive earthworks of the Mississippi Valley, such as Grave Creek Mound and the Great Serpent Mound. This narrative, described by historian Douglas Hunter as 'White Tribism,' reframed colonization as the continuation of a primordial past and diminished the roles of Native peoples. The myth of the Mound Builder race provided a rationale for colonization and cast genocidal violence toward Native Americans as defensive or retributive. In 1894, ethnologist Cyrus Thomas published a 700-page report for the Smithsonian Institution providing conclusive evidence that the earthworks were built by native peoples, shifting academic attitudes. However, news reports of giant skeletons continued for decades. In 1934, Aleš Hrdlička debunked the claims, blaming the 'will to believe' and amateur anthropologists unfamiliar with human anatomy. The Smithsonian's role in debunking led to a conspiracy theory that it destroyed thousands of giant skeletons, a story itself debunked by Reuters and the Associated Press in 2014.

Did You Know?

• Aleš Hrdlička, curator of anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution, debunked giant skeleton claims in 1934, blaming the 'will to believe' and amateur anthropologists.
• A giant skeleton exhibited in Tennessee was later identified by a medical doctor as a young mastodon's remains.
• The myth of a white Mound Builder race was used to justify colonization and violence against Native Americans.
• An internet story from 2014 claiming the Smithsonian destroyed thousands of giant skeletons was debunked by Reuters and the Associated Press.