Your Daily Giant 3/20/2013

 

Today's Daily giant comes from the great state of Maryland. We also welcome a new Stonebuilder friend, Linus the cat, who sent us a photo and got his paws on the keyboard somehow to comment on yesterday's Daily Giant. We discuss two of numerous giant skeleton finds in the state today. From the New York tribune, November 21, 1897, Page 11, we are informed that a seven foot skeleton was unearthed and received by the Maryland Academy of Sciences. The Maryland Academy of Sciences is Maryland's oldest scientific institution and one of the oldest such institutions in the entire nation, founded in 1797. The article states that the museum had in its possession three "powerful" skeletons, two of which were "Gigantic". We are also told that "The vertebrae and bones of the legs are nearly as thick as those of a horse and the length of the long bones is exceptional". The skulls are noted as possessing "great strength, stiffened behind a powerful occipital ridge." Dr. Philip R. Uhler, the president of the Academy discusses how before the coming of the white man a race of up to seven foot tall Native Americans lived in the area of the find. The other account is from The Pittsburgh Press Aug 9, 1905, about the unearthing of 8 foot skeletons by members of the same institution. The detailed article says the skeletons were at the Academy's building on Franklin street and were being put together for display in the fall. The collection of skeletons at the Academy was said to total eight and the article also mentions a seven foot six skeleton that was unearthed at Ocean City MD several years earlier. I contacted the museum yesterday but have not heard back as of yet. I imagine the skeletons were most likely reinterred as part of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Regardless, the museum should have records and hopefully photographs of these finds, right? Dr. Uhler was certainly the president at the time and leg bones were as thick as a horse. That is worth studying, photographing and extensively discussing, is it not? Any scientist worth anything would be intrigued endlessly by these finds. Could this be a lie or a hoax, with the president of a prestigious institution either involved or so incompetent that he could not measure or observe correctly in a fashion that we would expect an eighth grade student to do. This is another case I will rigorously pursue. One of thousands that need further investigation because no professional can do it for fear of ridicule or not being accepted by a fraternity of closed minded and dogmatic colleagues. I remember an intellectual environment like this, it was called high school. Skepticism is healthy and warranted but the skeptic attacks easy targets and ignores the ones that can't be figured out, pretending that troubling evidence doesn't exist. Is the skeptic going to ask any real questions about this phenomena? Will he contact museums, find family members, pour through documents, journals, diaries and historical records, interview people or relentlessly chase down leads. No, his mind is already made up and he will only entertain information that supports his case. Thus the mystery is left to be solved by the overworked and underfunded few who care only for the pursuit of the truth.