XPost: talk.politics.misc, soc.culture, alt.archeology
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13268797/giant-skeletons-sandals-nevada-cave.html
Archaeologists are investigating claims about a long-lost group
of giant humans who stood up to 10 feet tall and lived in caves
in the southwestern US.
Supersized human skulls, 15-inch sandals, and massive handprints
have been uncovered in excavations inside a cave in Lovelock,
Nevada since 1912 that have continued to spark the curiosity
of scientists and the public more than a century.
The stories about these 'Giants of Lovelock,' came from Native
Americas who told stories a brutal tribe of pale-skinned,
red-haired invaders who waged war on the local tribes, before
finally being trapped in a cave and exterminated.
According to archaeologists, the story is likely an exaggeration
of the facts or even an outright fabrication- but some of the
pieces of evidence continue to encourage believers.
. . .
Interesting.
If the artifacts are REAL though ...
Gigantopithecus did live in China. They were LARGE.
NO reason they might not have trekked north and
across the exposed Bering land-bridge along with
humans. There have been several glaciations, and
each likely exposed that land.
Selective forces can also lead to large
physical size. Compare Shetland ponies to
clydesdales or yippy lap-dogs to rottweillers
or the evolution of horses and ice-age
mega-fauna.
Gigs were supposed to be "like large apes", but
brain size is only JUST so indicative of IQ. It
depends how you USE it, how it's wired. Maybe the
best contemporary example are the dino-derived
parrots - amazingly bright even with nut-sized
brains. If human brains were wired so well we'd
have 500+ IQs. (the actual IQs of dinos is
another subject - maybe better than we think)
"Giants" are also reported in European/Med history,
typically woven into the current popular theologies.
Alleged finds of large remains in and around Sicily
have even been spirited-away in the night by Italian
(Vatican?) authorities. No comment, never happened.
The human propensity to exaggerate has likely
exaggerated the size of said "giants" - but there
are enough tales from enough sources so that stories
should not be dismissed. Up until the modern era,
even people seven or eight feet tall would be
called "giants". Humans were pretty shrimpy all
in all until the latter 1800s. Bad/no food. If
the average man is 5'4" then any modern US
basketball star is a "giant".
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)