Thursday, March 6, 2014

Daily Giant Update:

Upon further review we found that this story from the early days of Your Daily Giant was actually a two part piece, back to back reports from the Pittsburgh Press, September 13th and 14th 1932. It just goes to show that any one of these stories can be expanded on by doing a little digging, NPI. This story was also picked up by the New York Times on Sept. 14th. A highly detailed account is given of the find, including a map of where the dig site was and photos. We are told that the unearthing of prehistoric giants found near Finleyville (Pa.) has focused the interest of scientists the world over upon a wooded hillside near Pittsburgh. Let's look at some of the details of this find. Excavators led by State Archaeologist D. S. Fisher unearthed 49 skeletons from at burial mound in Washington County Pa. Archaeologists were amazed at the excellent condition of the teeth. The largest skeleton was a "Giant" nearly 8 feet high. It measured 89 inches from feet to skull and measured 26 inches across the chest. There is a photo of Fisher examining " huge bones" and a photo of some of the large teeth also. One female skeleton was noted for having "huge" teeth, all the skeletons had "massive jaws" and "strong" teeth. State Archaeologist Fisher remarked, "never in all my finds have I seen strong, well preserved teeth such as these. Fisher's men also had to protect the site as there were hundreds of onlookers.
So what do we have here, another zany hoax by an unstable professional. A state archaeologist who must have read many obscure town histories to find all about descriptions of massive and perfect teeth of previous finds and felt like throwing his hard fought career away. Did Fisher concoct a hoax, silence his men, pay off hundreds of onlookers and doctor photos with a 1930's version of Photoshop, with no perceivable gain to be had? Did he then sucker in the Pittsburgh Press and New York Times to write detailed and technical descriptions of his finds? Maybe something else happened here. The Smithsonian Institution is reported to have received the remains from the site. I found an article about another of Dr. Fisher's finds a year later in the Pittsburg Press September 7th, 1933. Fisher must have somehow kept his job because the following is reported. "G. S. Fisher of Finleyville, state archaeologist and discoverer of many relics that have found their way to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. already has unearthed 13 skeletons."

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