Did the Amazonians Exist?

Giants and giant species have appeared in many cultures and religions throughout history. Ancient Greece had their Titans and there are giants all over the place in Norse mythology. They also make an appearance in Chinese, Aboriginal and Native American mythology as well as the Daityas which appear in Hinduism. You’ve probably heard the fairy tales of Jack and the Beanstalk or the Valiant Little Tailor which pit small but clever humans against enormous but ultimately pretty dumb giants.

Basically, wherever there are myths and legends, there also be giants.

I never thought I’d be sitting here writing about whether giants were ever a real thing or not but there we are, I just go where life takes me. This episode also has a tangential tie-in with a previous one called “Why do People Think Aliens Built the Pyramids?”. In that, we briefly referenced a theory where alien gods mated with humans, thus triggering a great flood to try and wash this oopsie away. I mentioned that this was a rabbit hole for another day and guess what?

That day has finally come! So throw your skepticism out of the window for a little while and we’ll go adventuring deep into giant country. Then you can retrieve your skepticism at the end because, zoicks alert, there are some pretty weird theories in this one.

Giants Throughout History

Let’s take it all the way back—we’re talking biblical times here. Giants are mentioned in the Old Testament and for some, this means it’s cast-iron proof that they existed. There are also a few different strands of giant families so it seems it wasn’t such an uncommon thing a few thousand years ago. Ok, remember how about 30 seconds ago I told you to throw your skepticism out of the window?

Yeah, mine flew straight back in so instead of presenting this as a pro existence and then con existence format, I’m just going to decode as we go. Although as I’ve seen, no amount of explanations can dissuade some people from believing some wacky stuff. Right, let’s get back to that bible.

I’ll start at the very beginning, Genesis, in fact. Right there in the first book of the Old Testament, there is a reference to giants. But here’s the rub already! There are many different versions of the Bible, so the reference has been translated in more than one way.

In the King James Version, for instance, Genesis Chapter 6 verse 4 outright states: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

So there’s a mention of giants and then “sons of God” who impregnated human women and this also resulted in “mighty men”, or giants. The inference is that these “sons of God” were not human. So what were they? Enter: the New International Version of the Old Testament. In the same Genesis verse, it states: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”

So…were Nephilim giants? Or sons of God? Or both? According to some bible scholars, Nephilim, who are only referenced once more in the whole Old Testament and not even in every version of it, were the unholy offspring of the Sons of God and human women. These “sons of God” are also generally agreed to be fallen angels or demons. These Nephilim were gigantic, super strong and up to no good.

Another school of thought is that they were merely the offspring of a bloodline that had fallen away from God, being that the word “Nephilim” could have come from the Hebrew word meaning “to fall” but could also potentially mean “giant”. This obviously seems a bit more likely but it’s a boring and sensible explanation so let’s ignore it and stick with the more entertaining one. Either way, I’m starting to understand why there are so many passionate arguments over what the Bible means as it’s written in an infuriatingly vague way.

The Nephilim are literally mentioned 3 times in the whole thing, twice within one sentence, and somehow their entire history has been extrapolated out of this. Plus, we’re looking at translations that have all been styled according to personal preferences so who knows which version is the most accurate?

And sorry but we’re still not done here. The New International Version also states that a race or tribe called the Anak were descended from the Nephilim and that when the Israelites went to scout out Canaan, they came back and told Moses: “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” So, pretty big people, eh?

This is the book of Numbers, chapter 13, verse 33 by the way. And the King James Version makes it even more clear what they saw: “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

The New International Version also mentions a race called Rephaites which is translated as “giants” in the King James Version, for example in Deuteronomy chapter 3 verse 11, it says: “For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.”

A cubit is the measurement from your elbow to the end of your middle finger. I guess this can vary from person to person but at a rough estimate, King Og’s iron bed was about 13.5 feet or just over 4 metres long. That’s a pretty big bed, even for a king, so maybe he was a giant after all. Although, there are no other measurements given for any other beds in the Old Testament so maybe it was just a tiny bit larger than average. We have no comparisons!

And going back to the rabbithole I mentioned at the start—in the Aliens vs Pyramids episode, I came across a theory that extraterrestrials had mated with humans. The babies they produced were so abhorrent in God’s eyes that he wiped out the whole of humanity with the great flood, apart from Noah and his tiny crew because when it came to repopulating the place, I guess incest was more acceptable than inter-species breeding. Anyway, this brings up the question as to whether the Nephilim or outright “giants” depending on which bible you read, were actually aliens.

Or were the result of aliens reproducing with humans, again, the Old Testament is kind of confusing. If you’re into that kind of stuff, of course the sons of God were aliens! There are things you can bend any way you want to make it look that way but this is an episode about giants, so seeing as how this is spiraling out of control, let’s stop getting bogged down in all this nitty gritty and move on to the bona fide biblical giant that everyone knows—Goliath.

When I first started researching this, I didn’t think there would be any way I’d be a thousand words in and not even reached Goliath yet but there you go. Giants: more research needed than I thought.

At least the differing translations of the Old Testament agree on this guy. In the book of One Samuel, chapter 17, his height is given as “6 cubits and a span”. Using the same calculations as per King Og’s enormous bed, that would put Goliath at a whopping 9 feet 9 inches or nearly 3 metres tall.

For context, Guinness World Records could not verify King Og’s height (they really mention this, I’m not making it up) and currently the tallest person who ever lived was Robert Wadlow, at 8 feet, 11 inches or 2.7 metres tall. Unfortunately for poor Robert, however, his gigantism caused a whole raft of health problems, leading him to die at the age of just 22. If Goliath really was taller than him, he must have come from proper giant stock as he was a fierce warrior and a champion of the Philistines, not apparently a poor old chap suffering from the problems a human with gigantism actually has.

Also, the story of David and Goliath occurs after Noah et al repopulated the earth, so unless some cheeky aliens or demons were still popping down for a little bit of how’s your father with the local humans, maybe there was some Rephaite, Anak or Nephilim ancestry present in the 8 people on the ark. Or maybe one eventual result of a small gene pool is a whole race of ginormous people. Goliath also had a brother with 6 fingers so that may also point to genetic abnormalities. There’s even tell in the Hebrew Bible that our current favourite giant, King Og, managed to hang on to the Ark until Noah gave him sanctuary on it so he survived the flood!

And then Mrs. Noah had some explaining to do.

A paper published in the Ulster Medical Journal in 2014 by Deirdre E Donnelly and Patrick J Morrison states “We suggest that (Goliath) had a hereditary pituitary disorder possibly due to the AIP gene, causing early onset and familial acromegaly or gigantism.” The paper goes on to suggest that David managed to defeat Goliath so easily as the pituitary tumour the giant had affected his lateral vision so he couldn’t see the stone coming. It’s also not specified in the old testament whether the stone killed him or just knocked him out and David then killed him some other way or killed him by chopping his head off.

Either way, Goliath is definitely a touchstone for believers in giants and I guess it means that if you believe the Bible is accurate, you also believe a race of giants inhabited the earth and maybe still does. Personally, I don’t believe this. Even if these kinds of stories did actually take place, I’m more willing to believe that Goliath and his ilk were just very large, burly guys, maybe living in an area with a wealth of natural resources that meant they had the opportunity to grow taller and stronger than people in other parts of the world.

Goliath was also decked out in armour and a helmet, increasing his size and probably increasing it even more in the eyes of the terrified Israelites. So yes, if this encounter did even happen, I’m putting Goliath’s size down to an exaggeration of an already physically imposing specimen.

Slightly More Recent Giant News

Let’s catch up on the most recent updates in the world of giants. As they haven’t been seen striding across the plains for a while, I think it’s safe to say that they’re either dormant, extinct or imaginary. In 2016, while compiling a few stories for a “This Week in History” article, Konrad Stump found this small item in the Springfield Daily News from April 25th 1934:

A large mound with five white oaks growing atop it blocked the front view at the farm of J.D. Crain near Lake of the Ozarks. After several days spent removing the trees and much of the dirt, Crain came upon broad and flat rocks. Removing the rocks, Crain was astonished to find seven skeletons.

While six of the skeletons were of normal size, one measured 8 feet, 4 inches. No valuables were found with the skeletons, but seven pieces of petrified material in the shape of human hearts were found. Eventually, Crain and others dug a hole near his front porch, placed the bones in a box and reburied them.

Hmm, curious. Connye (probably pronounced “Connie”) and Al Griffin took up the story for LakeExpo.com. After confirming that a J.D. Crain did have a farm in the area and that previous owners had private family burial plots there, the hunt was on for this buried box o’bones. Archaeologist Eric Fuller said that he believed the so-called petrified hearts were probably stone hammers and that therefore the bones were potentially thousands of years old.

Unfortunately though, we’re talking hundreds of acres with no remaining landmarks to indicate where the porch used to be. While it’s possible that the story might have been a hoax back in the 1930s, it was not seemingly reported with much fanfare, just as a local interest piece. And after all, 8 feet 4 inches, or 2.5 metres isn’t a supernaturally tall height so we might not be talking giants here, maybe just a really, really tall person.

In fact, this person would have tied as the 5th tallest that we know about, ever, so maybe it is a bit unlikely, but not impossible. Maybe these bones will be found one day and we can find out more about who they originally belonged to.

I know Simon will perk up at this bit—in 2014, the History Channel released a show called “Search for the Lost Giants” in which two brothers go searching for giant skeletons and evidence of giants. I did a search for how many episodes there are and, in a quote that could sum up the entire History Channel output, the first result said—spoiler alert, by the way—: “6 episodes. The suspense of finding something is dragged out through all 6 episodes and in the final episode, nothing is found.” Don’t think I’ll worry myself too much with that one then.

Giant Hoaxes

To keep up the idea that giants did once roam the earth, people have been creating hoaxes about them for a long time. In 1869, a man called George Hull got into an argument about whether the reference to giants in the old testament was literal or not. Hull, an atheist, lost the argument and in an admirable fit of pique, decided to create a fake giant to prove that some people will just believe anything.

He hired people on the hush-hush to quarry out a block of gypsum that was over 10 feet or 3 metres long. This was then carved into the shape of a giant, naked man, whose body had supposedly been petrified or fossilized. The gypsum went through various processes to make it look older and weatherbeaten and the giant was then buried in a hole on Hull’s cousin’s farm in Cardiff, New York.

A year later, his cousin, who was in on the hoax, just happened to decide to build a well on the very spot and so the giant man was “discovered”.

While it was very quickly pooh-poohed by scientists, mainly because it was a totally nonsensical place to dig a well, this didn’t stop visitors from coming to see the giant in their hundreds. Some people thought it was just a very large statue but others did genuinely believe it was proof that giants existed and at 50 cents a pop to see it, it turned into quite the money spinner for Hull and his cousin, William Newell. George Hull ended up selling his share of what was now known as the Cardiff Giant to a group for $23,000 in 19th century money which is coming up to a whopping half a million dollars today.

Eventually, even famous hoaxster P.T. Barnum wanted in on the action and tried to buy the giant but when he was refused, he secretly had a copy made and then told everyone that his giant was the real one and the Cardiff Giant was a fake. One of the Cardiff Giant’s new owners, David Hannum, sued Barnum but in December 1869, the originator of the hoax, George Hull, ended up coming clean and confessing to the whole thing, stating that he’d wanted to show how easy it was to trick some Christians into believing things.

Hannum’s court case then fell apart as a judge ruled that Barnum couldn’t be sued for calling the Cardiff Giant a fake as both the giant figures were fakes. Hull’s giant is currently on display in the Farmer’s Museum in New York and with an admission fee of $15, it’s about the same price to see it as it was in 1896. Barnum’s fake of the fake is also still in circulation although, as is appropriate for an artifact created by the slippery showman, more than one place claims to be the current owner.

In more recent times, there have been numerous photos coming to light that show people excavating giant skulls or full giant skeletons. With the advent of photoshop and other such digital manipulations, however, it’s extremely easy to fake something like this. Just one example is a photo supposedly showing two people unearthing a humongous humanoid skeleton from the ground.

This has made the rounds a few times over the years, its location generally being given as India. The photo was actually from a 2002 digital art competition that specifically asked entrants to create a hoax archaeological discovery. User IronKite picked an image from the real life mastodon excavation in New York in the year 2000 as inspiration and inserted the giant skeleton where the mastodon remains were.

He even later pointed out that he’d had to remove the shovelhead one man was holding so the guy just looks like he’s holding a stick with a handle on the end, but of course none of the real life news outlets that originally ran this as a true story noticed anything like that. Yes, this really was used in a piece published by the, admittedly not very well-known, Hindu Voice who later had to publish a retraction after readers pointed out it was clearly not real. Incidentally, IronKite came 3rd for his effort, maybe the missing shovelhead lost him a few points.

One Giant Cover-Up?

Where there are hoaxes, there are the people who perpetrate them and people who believe them. But what if some of the giant discoveries aren’t hoaxes and we’re just getting distracted from the truth by going too far in the other direction and believing them all to be made up? What if powerful bodies, such as the Smithsonian, were not only aware of the discovery of many giant skeletons around the world, but were actually involved in destroying them and trying to keep their presence firmly under wraps?

On the 3rd of December 2014, the World Daily News Report published an article online with the headline: “Smithsonian Admits to Destruction of Thousands of Giant Human Skeletons in Early 1900’s.” This bombshell of an article then starts off by claiming:

A US Supreme Court ruling has forced the Smithsonian institution to release classified papers dating from the early 1900′s that proves the organization was involved in a major historical cover up of evidence showing giant human remains in the tens of thousands had been uncovered all across America and were ordered to be destroyed by high level administrators to protect the mainstream chronology of human evolution at the time.

There are a couple of photos with the article, one of a man holding what looks like a very large leg bone supposedly found in Ohio in 2011, and a row of giant skulls, one intact but the others damaged. The article quotes the American Institution of Alternative Archeology (AIAA) as saying: “There has been a major cover up by western archaeological institutions since the early 1900′s to make us believe that America was first colonized by Asian peoples migrating through the Bering Strait 15,000 years ago, when in fact, there are hundreds of thousands of burial mounds all over America which the Natives claim were there a long time before them, and that show traces of a highly developed civilization, complex use of metal alloys and where giant human skeleton remains are frequently found but still go unreported in the media and news outlets.”

Stories like this, adding in photos, just add to the various other giant rumours swirling around and, to some, increase its believability. There’s definitely a strong religion vs. science aspect to the whole argument over giants, as our friend George Hull found out in the 1800s. Namechecking world-renowned entities like the Smithsonian and the US Supreme Court, adds credence to the story that giants were real, so therefore the theory of evolution is wrong, so therefore science is stupid, so therefore we’ve all been lied to, so therefore the Smithsonian needs to get rid of these giants quick before the whole science community goes up in flames.

It seems that the only people really pushing the whole “giants are real” storyline are people who take the reading of the bible literally and, as I was unfortunate enough to read in the comments on the World Daily News Report story, a load of racists. Giants seem to have transcended race, at least the ones we currently recognize, and so people commenting on this story are throwing all kinds of shade at Native Americans who, according to the article, say the giant burial mounds pre-date their arrival. This makes the then totally obvious logical leap that giants were Caucasian or white.

I don’t think anyone stopped to think about any of this—giant burial mounds predating native people? And it’s never been mentioned before? This is world-changing news if true and it’s just given one throwaway line in an online article and not even attributed to a specific Native American spokesperson or historical organization yet people tuck it away into their mental arsenal of why everyone else is a moronic sheep.

Yes, you may have already guessed but this article is a complete hoax. The World News Daily Report is a clever combination of keywords with a page title of “news you can trust”, however, when you go to their website, the slogan at the top says “where facts don’t matter”. It’s a satirical website but even with other articles such as “SAME-SEX COUPLE CELEBRATES WORLD’S FIRST ANAL BIRTH AFTER SUCCESSFUL RECTAL-OVARY TRANSPLANT” and “PYRAMIDS WERE BUILT WITH HELP FROM DINOSAURS, CLAIMS TOP EGYPTOLOGIST”, some people just haven’t twigged yet.

The photos used in the article have been taken from completely different sources and the American Institution of Alternative Archeology doesn’t even exist, or at least has zero online presence outside of links back to this story. There really is just no telling some people, is there?

I’d like to briefly mention Steve Quayle here, who appears to be the David Icke of giants. He appeared on the Coast to Coast radio show which also made a cameo appearance in our “Hell at the Bottom of a Hole in Siberia” episode—I mean, it’s almost like there’s a conspiracy with fake paranormal things and this show or something. As well as being some kind of future world events savant, Steve Quayle is also very much in the pro-giant camp. He believes that giants are being kept in suspended animation and that they will one day rise up against us.

The blurb on the back of his book “Genesis 6 Giants” says:

In this second edition of ‘Genesis 6 Giants’, author Stephen Quayle reveals the overwhelming evidence of biblical giants as well as the Titans found in mythology and legends not only existed, but also brought false religions and human sacrifices to our planet. The author also reveals how giants were (and are) fathered by fallen angels, and the spirits of dead giants become the demons that have plagued mankind throughout history. You will also learn about historic giants from the distant past right on up to today, how modern giants may form the vanguard of the coming attack on the human race, and how you can protect yourself and your loved ones from the spiritual attacks Satan and his angels have planned for mankind.

Oh my god, hurry, click “add to cart” as soon as you can! All this has come about because of literally a couple of references in the entirety of the Old Testament. If you go on to SteveQuayle.com, in the “about Steve” section, he’s given himself a trademark on his own name! It says: “Stephen Quayle™ is a nationally known radio host…” blah blah blah. There’s also an interesting list of stuff he apparently knew was going to happen but never bothered telling anyone about in order to prevent it, such as:

“At inception, Quayle warned about the spread of new water borne pathogens and mutations occurring in Earth’s oceans due to excreted pharmaceuticals from human waste.”—at inception? Does that mean from inside his mother’s womb? Or at the dawn of the age when pharmaceuticals began which I’m pretty sure pre-dates his birth.

Pivotally he also foresaw this: “Quayle was one of the first radio talk show guests to describe the introduction of hoof and mouth disease into Taiwan which resulted in the total destruction of their hog industry.” Wow, not just one of the first scientists or farmers to describe this, he was one of the first radio talk show guests! Inspired.

Also: “Steve is uncannily accurate in his warnings concerning hybrid and genetically engineered viruses and the danger they pose to humans.”—I mean, isn’t everyone?

I tried to go to his dedicated website about giants but, strangely, access was denied! It’s a cover-up, I tell you!

Giant Conclusion

So, did giants ever exist? I’m going with “no”. Do they still exist, slumbering in government labs or under the ground somewhere? Again, no. Will they rise up and decimate the human race? I bloody well hope not but it’s not very high up on my list of current things to worry about. Why are some people so adamant that this is true? As we’ve discovered, it mainly goes back to religion. If there weren’t real giants, then the bible cannot be taken literally as the word of god.

Somewhat worryingly, in a Gallup poll in 2011, 3 out of 10 Americans said they thought of the bible as the actual word of god. Now, this may include people who aren’t actually religious and had just heard that the bible was supposed to be the literal word of god, but out of those 30ish percent, over half of them went to church every week. So I guess the takeaway is that a whole lot of Americans believe in giants. Who knew!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some examples of giants in mythology and religion?

Giants appear in many cultures and religions, including the Titans in Ancient Greece, giants in Norse mythology, Chinese, Aboriginal, and Native American mythology, and the Daityas in Hinduism.

What does the Old Testament say about giants?

The Old Testament mentions giants in several places. For example, Genesis 6:4 in the King James Version states: ‘There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.‘

Who were the Nephilim according to the Old Testament?

The Nephilim are mentioned in the Old Testament as the offspring of the ‘sons of God’ and human women. Some interpretations suggest they were gigantic, super strong, and up to no good, while others propose they were merely the offspring of a bloodline that had fallen away from God.

What is the story of the Cardiff Giant?

The Cardiff Giant was a hoax created by George Hull in 1869. He carved a giant figure out of gypsum and buried it on his cousin’s farm. When it was ‘discovered,’ it attracted many visitors who believed it was proof of giants, turning into a profitable venture for Hull and his cousin.

What is the story of the Springfield Daily News article from 1934?

The article reported that J.D. Crain found seven skeletons, one of which measured 8 feet, 4 inches, while digging on his farm near Lake of the Ozarks. The skeletons were reburied, and the story remains unverified.

What is the Smithsonian’s alleged involvement in giant skeletons?

A hoax article from the World Daily News Report claimed that the Smithsonian destroyed thousands of giant human skeletons in the early 1900s to protect the mainstream chronology of human evolution. This story is false and the website is known for publishing satirical and fake news.

Who is Steve Quayle and what are his beliefs about giants?

Steve Quayle is a radio host and author who believes that giants are being kept in suspended animation and will one day rise up against humanity. He also believes that giants were fathered by fallen angels and that their spirits become demons.

What is the author’s conclusion about the existence of giants?

The author concludes that giants did not exist and do not exist today. The belief in giants is often tied to religious interpretations of the Bible, particularly among those who take the Bible literally.

Sources

• Original Decoding the Unknown video: Did the Amazonians Exist?
• Hero image source by Wiglaf, based on Europe plain rivers.png by Dbachmann. / openverse, by-sa.