Do Human Giants Really Exist?

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History is filled with stories of giants, from Goliath in the Bible to the giants of Patagonia, which Magellan and other explorers reported finding in the 1500s. Most of these accounts are nothing more than myths and legends, but there have been verified cases of human gigantism that blur the line between fact and fantasy. Let’s take a look at giants throughout history.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
2:16 - Tangent Cam
4:41 - Patagonian Giants
6:27 - The Debunking
8:10 - Why Did The Stories Persist?
9:34 - Historical Giants
13:57 - What Happened To Them?
15:30 - Sponsor - Nebula
LINKS LINKS LINKS
www.atlasobscura.com/articles...
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...
www.google.com/books/edition/...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagos...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
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earthlymission.com/dinka-tall...
• Islands That AREN'T Ac...
www.art.com/products/p5624336...

[@riftwytch]

One point about Goliath that rarely gets mentioned is that in the oldest texts, his height works out to be 6'9". I used to work with a guy that tall, and I felt like a baby standing next to him.

[@Cocoanutty0]

Bristisj comedian/actor Greg Davis is 6’8”. He never looks that big to me until I see someone my height stand next to him. Heck, even my 6’5 gruncles are massive to me and I’m 5’7! I think being next to someone that tall makes them way taller than you’d imagine, if that makes sense. Like I’d definitely imagine some guys in the past stood next to a 6’6 man and considered him a true giant and overestimated his actual height.

[@thatguyfrommars3732]

Yes, the oldest texts - the Dead Sea Scrolls - say four cubits and a span (6'9" or 7'8" depending on the unit of measure). The Masoretic texts which came later changed this to six cubits and a span (about 10 feet).

[@kodyspicer41]

Goliaths sword alone weigh about 15 pounds, a regular sword is about 2 and a half. I dont believe he was only about 7 feet. Also, your mixed up I believe, the 9 foot one is older

[@thatguyfrommars3732]

@@kodyspicer41 The Dead Sea scrolls say 4 cubits and a span. Regardless, it was literary tradition in the ancient world, and especially the ancient Near East, to use exaggerated language to convey the significance of a person or event. They weren't supposed to be taken literally.

[@dshock85]

People kind of forget the average height for most people through human history has been between 5'4 and 5'8. Some trending smaller. Most of the people in the Mediterranean were around 5'4 to 5'6. The men that is. This doesn't account any stunting that took place during times of famine or crises.

[@romanmoreno2597]

Hello, I am from southern Patagonia, where Magellan was for a walk. Some interesting details: The island of "Tierra del Fuego" (land of fires) is called that because before seeing anyone, they saw the smoke from bonfires. Likewise, they saw giant footprints in the snow, because the indigenous people used snow shoes, and they called them "patagones," or people with big feet. Furthermore, the Europeans and especially the Spanish then were shorter than now, around 1.5 m, so by comparison, the Mapuches and others seemed tall to them. So the origin of the myth of the giants could well be a mix of these confusions and the explorers' habit of embellishing the stories a little. The effects of rum cannot be ruled out either...

[@DaveElcock]

You think people dumb enough to mistake snow shoes for footprints? Cmon man you think people can't differentiate between tall people and outright 6 finger double row of teeth giants?

[@johngeo5816]

@@DaveElcock the europeans were tiny af back then and anyone over like five ten would dwarf the average tall european napoleon who is considered short was average height for his time

[@eewweeppkk]

​@@DaveElcockThey probably interpretted them as shoe prints, which they were, and not footprints. As people living in the mediterranean with no knowledge of snow shoes exploring a land on the opposite side of the world, having grown up hearing stories of giants, yes I'd say they were 'that dumb'. Though I wouldn't call it dumb personally.

[@DaveElcock]

@@eewweeppkk ok they were shoe prints, the point i'm making is that they knew of giants, giants also wear sandals or shoes, the implication from the comment is that a normal person was wearing snow shoes hence the size of the print, but that's a silly assertion ,shoes or sandals don't taper as toes do, the print would still reflect a small person owing to the depth of the print, many of these people are excellent trackers and would spot the difference .

[@eewweeppkk]

@@DaveElcock Giants don't "also wear sandals or shoes" because giants do not exist. If you had never seen a snow shoe print before you would probably be more distracted by the fact that it was more than twice the size of a normal shoeprint, and clearly of human make since it would leave a patterned print. I would personally trust the comment making the 'silly assertion' since they live there and your best defense is assuming that the crew on these expeditions should know better. The ones claiming they saw giants.

[@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj]

It's also worth noting that at the time of Magellan's voyage, the average height of a man in Portugal was 5' 4".

[@4literv6]

Yeah he very carefully left this out. 😏 During ww2 an average American male serving was about 5'5" now an average us male is around 5'9" which as a 71.5" male seems to tall imo. Globally speaking an average male is about 5'6" still. So someone 6'6" wouldn't be considered normal at ALL. Nm a guy standing 7' or 8' tall and proportionally muscular. I.e. like shak or yao ming in the NBA. Or the 6'6" and taller 250-270# NFL tight ends who move as quickly as middle linebackers do and catch like a wide receiver. 😀

[@AaronOfMpls]

Yah, people in Spain and Portugal tend not to be all _that_ tall to begin with. But also, until the last century or so, Europeans in general frequently had their growth stunted by childhood illness and malnutrition. The Americas had far less of of either until after Europeans arrived, so their native people were often a fair bit taller. Even in eastern North America, the English explorers and colonists of the 15-1600s often remarked on how tall and healthy the natives were.

[@DBT1007]

yeah. back then, even in medieval era, the average height was more like.. maybe around 160 cm. and thats why homo floresiensis exists. if we compare the height with modern human from 2000s or even 1800s, obviously homo floresiensis is dwarf. but imagine if we just compare homo floresiensis with humans from 1300s. probably not that big in the difference but still homo floresiensis smaller. but the gap is not big

[@xxFreakifyxx]

When I was traveling in Kinsale, Ireland, I learned about a man with gigantism who lived there - Patrick Cotter O’Brien who was 8 ft tall and his life was very sad but interesting. He would only go out at night when no one else was around so that he wouldn’t frighten people. He actually surprised someone accidentally who saw him lighting his cigar with a gas lamppost. He made a living as a side-show attraction at the circus and he who claim to be descended from legendary Irish Giants

[@ezrajrperida100]

would honestly believe the legendary Irish Giant part

[@szupko]

The best twist in Eragon was when the dwarf explained to the human that long ago they had lost the war against the giants; the human asks, "Where did the giants go?"; the dwarf says, "I never said they went away."

[@sophroniel]

I met the author of Eragon, cool dude, I loved those books as a kid

[@chucklebutt4470]

I don't remember that part from the movie

[@nabinoorshahil2715]

@@chucklebutt4470 It is from the books.

[@sergemarlon]

Was he implying the humans were the Giants?

[@Crazyaj13]

yes@@sergemarlon

[@AarynGoodwin]

My immediate thought on this is that perhaps the tribe they encountered had some form of congenital gigantism affecting part of their population. In a smaller gene pool, mutations that would normally not gain a significant foothold can become common; 5-alpha reductase deficiency is an interesting example of this - there were isolated villages in a couple different countries where the condition became so common that it was practically considered normal for some of a family's daughters to turn into sons at puberty. Given that being big would have likely been seen as desirable, congenital gigantism could have become more prevalent (and the encounters could have been exaggerated by explorers since "tribe of giants" is more interesting than "tribe with some giants", or the tribe just had their most imposing members deal with them for the intimidation factor), but if there were also significant health and/or fertility problems associated with the condition it might have naturally been phased out of the gene pool again after several generations.

[@stitchedtogether88]

Ah I just commented the same thing, just yours sounds way smarter. This is what I was thinking as well. Perhaps a group had a hereditary Condition causing gigantism.

[@goldenwarrior1186]

At the end of the vid I figured that the accounts were probably actually legit, although highly exaggerated. I never even considered this as a possibility. You guys are smart

[@Jyiber]

I had a similar thought and would add the thought that the initial reports were exaggerated and they were only a average of 6'5"-7' tall with a few outliers, which would be impressive to the average European of the time at 5'6".

[@plopdoo339]

​@@Jyiberthey were averaging 7-8ft tall...the same with the Timucua people of Florida. Very common in America as the average height of native Americans was around 6'0 and this was back in the 18th century. They wiped out these populations because they used to sacrifice babies and children.

[@Xxtayce]

Gigantism is not heritable.

[@serdownofhousebad1127]

Funnily enough Mexico has plenty of volcanos so its not weird to see one on a map, scientists suggest that the meteor that hit the Chicxulub peninsula which wiped out the dinosaurs would not have been as severe if the area wasn't so highly volcanic. The meteor essentially forced a cluster of violent eruptions and earthquakes that aided in the extiction event

[@oO0Xenos0Oo]

Maybe you could have brought up the potsdam giants. They are not crazy tall, but it is a known case where very tall soldiers (and boys) were handpicked and even bred in order to form an intimidating regiment, which lasted for like 130 years. This probably happened at other places as well.

[@erin6083]

Yes I remember this story - very fascinating. It was a unit that was the kings’s pride and joy but it became rather a sick thing with the forced eugenics involved.

[@chucklebutt4470]

I'm almost certain that he did a video about them at one point but I could be misremembering!

[@dmo848]

Spartan😂 type of shit. U don't meet standards then your thrown off a cliff. Plain n simple. I couldn't even imagine

[@blabbotheastronaut]

Makes sense as to why the Argentinosaurus and so many other extra extra large dinosaurs were found down there. Can't expect Giant Kids to ride to Giant School on the back of a puny ankylosaur, now can we?!!

[@brianjimenez8205]

Best comment ever 😂

[@goldenwarrior1186]

Shoutouts to the dinos whose ankles were literally sore (or who were literally the size of ankles)

[@Hallgrenoid]

Well obviously Argentinosaurus would be found down there. What creature would name itself Argentinosaurus if they lived somewhere other than Argentinaa? Dinosaurs weren't savages.

[@loriw2661]

🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

[@loriw2661]

@@goldenwarrior1186well done!

[@klingoncowboy4]

I had heard a theory that what inspired the idea was finding large foot prints in the snow. Magellan was there in late March and early April which would be fall there. Anyone familiar with snow can attest that over time prints appear to grow as the snow partly melts and refreezes, and again perhaps the protective footwear warn could have also cause large foot prints.

[@goldenwarrior1186]

Honestly this is one of the most realistic theories I’ve seen

[@joewyatt2269]

I could see it. Also if they had some type of snow shoes, that might also make footprints larger. I mean, the myth of Bigfoot persists and there's zero proof. So something as innocent as misunderstood footprints could do it.

[@DaellusKnights]

That's what I was thinking I remember too. And also that myths like the yeti and bigfoot got their origins in a similar fashion, coupled with the large, (then) unfamiliar bones found in the respective regions... 😳

[@desperadox7565]

That applies to yetis too.

[@carlos6126]

footprints + the name meaning big foot sounds compelling to me

[@Peppersfirst]

Also, there are tons of newspaper articles throughout the 1800s and 1900s that mention giant human bones discovers all over the place.

[@4literv6]

Lincoln's address at Niagara falls mentioned gazing upon them like the storied giants of old once had. He also mentioned the mounds they were buried in spread across America.

[@hin_hale]

The mountainous terrain hypothesis makes sense to me. And it has happened before. In norse mythology, the giants live in the mountains too.

[@MrJeffcoley1]

If the Patagao send out their tallest members to greet Magellan and other explorers it wouldn't be unique. When Commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan in 1837 he brought a color guard made up of his tallest sailors, reportedly 6'6", when he came ashore.

[@lemmypop1300]

Serbian royal family in the middle ages were also quite tall, and one of them, Stefan Dušan was reportedly 2m13cm tall (7feet). He also had his guard who were close to his height gathered from all over Serbia and mercenaries from Europe, so they were quite intimidating indeed. The only one who managed to be taller than him was a standard bearer who was a Swede.

[@marienkijne]

The prussian king actually made large men from the army 'breed' with large women to try and make a guard of giants. Really messed up

[@MrJeffcoley1]

@@marienkijne Remember Leslie Jones' "Slave Draft" skit from SNL? She's lamenting that a big strong woman like her can't get a date today but in slave times she would have been highly sought after. "Maybe I'll take my talents to North Carolina ... or Alabama."

[@jamespicksley5781]

He only did that because Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer weren't available.

[@Elementalism]

MacArthur did the same when the Japanese delegation arrived in Manila to discuss surrender. He selected MPs that were 6'5" or taller as a tool to intimidate the delegation into thinking the avg US soldier were giants.

[@SachaCubesLatino]

Just to add as a clarification. Both in Portuguese and in Spanish, the suffix -gon/gão in "patagón/patagão" is an augmentative suffix (aka it takes a word and makes it a "larger" version of itself), so Patagonia/Patagónia is indeed the "Land of (people with) big feet" if you will; at least etymologically. Growing up in Chile, I was always told that this name was allegedly chosen due to the natives in the area literally having an above average foot size. Source: I'm an EFL teacher from Chile who happens to also speak Portuguese. Have a nice day, everyone!

[@Elizabeth_Paz]

I lived my entire childhood in Coyhaique, Chile, and we were told indigenous people used to wrap their feet with animal fur, that's why colonizers saw such big step marks on the snow. But ofc i dont know if it's true, i was just told so growing up there

[@marcomartins3563]

I've heard they were just pretty fucking tall, and therefore they had large feet that left large step marks on the ground.

[@ReinaDido]

Eso mismo estaba tratando de decir con mucho menos conocimiento. "Patagón" es pariente cercano de la palabra "Patón", lo que tiene sentido ya que siendo unos tipos tan altos, desde ya que iban a tener unos pies enormes.

[@JimmyKlef]

This is fantastic. Been following you for years and i have been hoping forever that you would hopefully start digging into more… fringey stuff. I know you have but I always thought you did such a good job of being open minded and scientific about it. I would absolutely adore if you did more topics like this and just do what you do. I think it could even help people. I love especially that you refrain almost entirely from any reckless dismissal or judgment and just go with it until it leads to answers. If you do, count me as a loyal forever watcher. I’m sure you and why files have an enormous crossover fanbase. I think you two are a great source of information on this because alienating beliefs is just not how you win people over. And not only that, you are both wise enough to know we don’t know everything yet and still know there is reason to have a sense of wonderment about mysterious things. It would be especially fantastic if anything that is still up for debate is left that way. Like why file’s doesn’t just debunk things for the sake of feigning intelligence. Integrity is also extremely valuable and integrity only exists against something. It isn’t integrity to simply appeal to the masses. If something is unsolved, it’s unsolved. If something strange is real… it’s real. Ufos are real. And i think you do such a great job that i can’t imagine anyone would start considering this a conspiracy channel if you even did do tons of videos and were open minded about it. It’s the zest in science. Anomalies and mysteries and questions and speculation and all of it. It is the engine that drives all science. Im sure a lot of folks on this channel scoff about Graham hancock and similar alternate history type ideas. But I’m also sure the fanbase includes quite a ton of people into those topics. Because of being inquisitive minds. And I believe a channel like this is basically perfect to dig into those ideas. People would be really surprised to find out it isn’t just schizophrenic - type nonsense. And im sure some who believe that stuff would be surprised to find out there are genuinely issues with some of those theories. But everyone nowadays could use the splash of perspective you could give to both sides of anything similar. Both sides suffer from automatically assuming the other side is just ignorant on the subject. We all need to better understand where ideas come from truly. We all assume it’s dumber than it is. No matter what you think. Everyone thinks it’s people being dumb or stubborn or smug when most of the time… both perspectives are absolutely understandable and both are smart in their own right. I would very much look forward to your take on these subjects. I would also love to see how you and your audience handles some of the truly anomalous hard data we have.

[@good4gaby]

“Both sides” as a way of looking at things is flawed. That’s all.

[@JimmyKlef]

@@good4gaby no

[@JimmyKlef]

@@good4gaby dont be fooled... i could school you in novels... but just "no" for you.

[@frankmazzur5674]

There are volcanoes in Mexico, there were cannibals in Brazil and the sea creature spraying water out the top of its head is a whale drawn by someone who never saw one for themself.

[@gabrielvelozo8583]

I mean, cannibals in Brazil is actually pretty accurate. We had a whole cultural and artistic movement named after it, "antropofagismo"

[@craigh5236]

Before or after the Portaquese colonized there?

[@emirc1221]

@@craigh5236 Yes, there were cannibalistic tribes in brazil, uruguay and north argentina, as in the caribbean, before and during the colonization. Some would do it more like in a ritualistic fashion, others would actually predate on other tribes

[@gabrielvelozo8583]

@@craigh5236 before and during the colonization. Until nowerdays we still have tribes so hidden in the rain forest that we can't contact, but i don't think that there is still cannibal tribes there. The artistic movement is somewhat recent, the ideia was to lean from european modernism and translate it to a nacional modernism, so the ideia of "eating" to gain the other strength, as a warrior ate the defeated one to gain his strength, so we should learn or "eat" the ideias of european modernism to create a nacional one.

[@HarryBuddhaPalm]

There are also volcanoes in Mexico.

[@justinweatherford8129]

Do you mean the cannibalism that Christopher Columbus had his people do?

[@Gulkave]

Cannibals in Brazil were actually a real thing. We had some anthropophagic tribes.

[@user-un8tv1pp8m]

I mean - every single christian taking the communion takes part in sympolic antrophagy - and if some researchers from Betegeuze showed up and asked about the practice? They would be told they eat the body and blood of some ancient carpenter who was human but also was created by some godly entity, to get the magical blessing of that god. Its not like its a rare practice in human history.

[@HarryBuddhaPalm]

There are also volcanoes in Mexico.

[@Aconitum_napellus]

​@@user-un8tv1pp8mI mean, genuine cannibalism has been fairly common. Although, as in most of the Amazonian people's I'm aware of, the "cannibalism" was/is funerary cannibalism, a form of endocannibalism in which the dead of the tribe are consumed at least in some form.

[@CJ16055]

We had cannibals in Scotland n all. That wernt so long ago

[@LillibitOfHere]

And British Victorians were cannibals too. They’re ate parts of Egyptian mummies for fun.

[@Kierron85]

I was surprised you didn’t mention the many newspaper articles from the 19th and 20th century in America that talk of finding giant skeletons in burial mounds, quite often with red hair too. Many of the articles end with something about the Smithsonian Institute taking the bones away for further examination and the stories never go any further. Would have been interesting what you could dig up and maybe debunk about those stories seeing as they seemed to be quite a regular occurrence for some time.

[@eccentriconyt]

Loved this video! Very informative and hype fueled. I have a passion and intrigue for this subject. Looking forward for many more to come! 👍

[@Jabberdau]

Just an interesting note: The Kentucky giant aka Martin Bates married Anna Swan, another giant. They had two children who both died at birth. They where much larger than a non-giant babies, so maybe a tribe of giants is not entirely out of the question.

[@murilo7794]

They probably are for the exact reason you mentioned, they both died at birth

[@davidanderson2357]

"Were", NOT "where". Crikey! If I had a dollar for every person on KZbin who confuses those two words, I could buy KZbin and ban such people forever.

[@annakonda6289]

@@davidanderson2357gee, if I had a dollar for every time people correct each other in a nasty way. It’s the internet, many people are not even native speakers or have other reasons why their grammar is not perfect. Maybe take that into consideration and be kind!

[@obi-wankenobi1750]

@annakonda6289 probably not. From what I’ve seen, most non- native English speakers have better grammar than native English speakers.

[@Call-me-Al]

​@@davidanderson2357 autocorrect issues is common. It's and its always gets tampered with and I have to double-check autocorrect didn't chew those up for me. Defiantly and Definitely appears to be another autocorrect victim, but thankfully I personally have never had issues with autocorrect trying to change that one for me.

[@user-lb1yw6fc7l]

I grew up with a family of giants in the U.K. The parents were both very tall which was uncommon for their generation, the biggest was a son was over 7ft and weighed around 400lb he really struggled to walk through normal door frames but for his height he didnt look out of proportion. The woman were all atleast 6'8 250lb and none looked overweight. I always thought they were giants.

[@shaftomite007]

They were 🤯

[@miguellabordaburnett3617]

Im surprised he didnt mention Great Britain as the ancient land thought to be inhabited by giants.

[@midwestrebel2]

​@@miguellabordaburnett3617 what's so great about it 🤣 In Britain is driven from the city Britton made by the Romans .. The Saxons & Danes who invaded the islands after the downfall of the Romans in the British isles in 3-5th century.. People of Wales , Scotland & Ireland etc was there before any other groups who arrived . The Romans was the first sophisticated people who arrived there , giant stories expand from America's to Asia but I haven't heard to many coming out of the UK I could imagine Giants where define as anyone who was 6feet or taller because people on average was generally smaller in some areas Idk

[@miguellabordaburnett3617]

@@midwestrebel2 Brutus ( "Bryttys" in welsh) of Troy was the founder of Britain according to the leyends. Look it up. He defeated the giants in the Island. I am just saying it was known as the land of the giants. Thats a fact.

[@alexia3552]

That's amazing!

[@ChroniclesOfEnigma]

I’ve been waiting for this topic! Thank you!

[@conspiracybrew]

Wow, this is an enthralling deep dive into the legends of Patagonian Giants and the intriguing old maps that depicted them! I had never heard about this level of detailed accounts from so many explorers spanning centuries. The contrast of early mapmaking with the depictions of mermaids, sea serpents, and giants to our current understanding of the world is fascinating. Also, the comparison of human height variations to dog breeds was a fun tangent! It makes you wonder how much of ancient storytelling was based on some kernels of truth. Great content, and the research put into this is commendable. Can't wait to delve more into these lost myths of history.

[@Vinemaple]

I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned the claims that giant ground sloths didn't go extinct in Patagonia until very recently. Actual evidence for this is sketchy at best, but it's an interesting rabbit hole to wander down. Lei Feng's map has something that looks as much like a ground sloth as a bear, standing on its hind legs, drawn in Patagonia, but we don't know why it's there or what it's really supposed to be.

[@jomolhari]

Didn't they only reach as south as the Pampa region? Also, they became extinct like 5000 or 8000 years ago, so I don't see what would be the point?

[@alexsetterington3142]

Giant bones

[@blanketeer6321]

I tried googling "Lei Feng sloth" and nothing came up?

[@kodyspicer41]

Speaking of Patagonia, patagonian giants caputred by Magellan

[@vichonoma]

There is indigenous legends that describe creatures similar to giant sloths, "elengassen", giant beings that lived in the caves🤷‍♂️

[@purebloodstevetungate5418]

Why is a volcano in Mexico surprising or associated with mermaids? Popocatépetl Volcano has been a feature of Mexico's past as far back in antiquity as the Mayans and Aztec known as Smoking Mountain.

[@ndowroccus4168]

It’s fairly easy to spot volcanic rock. Even easier if you’re looking for it.

[@misterx168]

Yeah, central mexico is just littered with volcanoes, there are 4 inactive volcanoes in my city alone and I'm not from the capital

[@mariar.3596]

i was looking for this comment lmao i was like "there... IS a volcano in mexico???"

[@gerrimilner9448]

there was a recorded giant who lived in somerset england, the pre-company of Clarks shoes made him a pair one of which is on display in there shoe musem. there is also a 9' skeliton from the local area, which is older

[@romancetag9313]

Great video, as always. The question is why has youtube suddenly stopped sending me notifications about Joe's new videos? I certainly haven't changed anything. I thought no videos were posted until I visited the channel

[@randellhill255]

Magellan talked of a 11 foot man on the beach, throwing dust on his head, and he sent out one of his people to do the same. These were not mountains.

[@GregorBarclay]

So is Magellan just bullshitting? It seems weird all these folk would make up stuff, or be so wildly off in their ball-parking of height. Like, you’ve have to be a moron to meet a dude of 6”6 and to later tell people he was 9 foot tall.

[@squirlmy]

How much can you trust a person who commands his people throw dust in their hair? lol.

[@MistaKropotkin]

If he sent one out to meet the giant, that means he didn’t meet him himself and therefore couldn’t have measured him accurately.

[@DaellusKnights]

Methinks Joe was referring to the name referring to the mountains, much like the Grand Titón Mts look like boobs (from a certain angle... in dim light... after a 3-day bender...) 😂😭🤣 😉

[@jsbrads1]

Where are the bones of the race?

[@yaddar]

wait, we do have volcanos in Mexico, one would be right there! ALSO, Joe, have you covered the story of the Volcano that appeared one day in the farm of a Mexican farmer during WW2? the Parícutin volcano.

[@coldmexican288]

Popocatepetl

[@nasis18]

I remember reading about that. If I recall correctly, I think he hit a pocket of magma, and it started spewing out. After a year or so, the dome was several hundred feet high.

[@JonMartinYXD]

@@nasis18 No, you can't hit a pocket of magma and cause a volcano. By the time the magma gets that close to the surface it is coming up whether you like it or not. The family was out in their fields, a fissure opened up, steam and gasses started coming out, then lava. It happened fast enough that they actually got separated and didn't know if they all survived until they got reunited in town later in the day.

[@leekestner1554]

@@JonMartinYXD Was that when he was plowing and the plow stuck in the ground and the ox couldn't pull it out and he unhitched the ox and watched the fissure open up and consume the plow.

[@shellylloyd1458]

I agree, I think this would be a great one for Joe to cover!

[@TheClosetFloor]

This video popped a thought into my thick brain (compared to Joe's). Since communication back in the early explorers' days was quite slow, how often did newly discovered lands get named different names by different explorers that thought they were first? Also, how did new lands, like the central and south American countries come to be known as they are now?

[@jackiepollard3843]

Thanks for sharing this. 👍 Always enjoy your videos.

[@elainegoad9777]

The Navajo, Hopi, Zuni etc... of Southwest USA have lots of stories about Giants. the Serpent Mount in Ohio is thought to have been built by Giants.

[@rickiebansbach7871]

The red-haired giants of Nevada.

[@Thurgosh_OG]

Plenty of giants in Scottish and Irish lore. Two of them had a big fight, throwing huge stones across the Irish Sea at each other, creating the 'Giant's Causeway' as a by product; which can still be seem and walked on (a bit) on the coasts of both countries.

[@S3lkie-Gutz]

In the Arctic circle too, in inuit creation stories the first race of humans were actually giants(tuniit or sivullirmiut in inuktitut) and were eventually succeeded by present day humans which might be describing proto-inuit or "Thule" culture succeeding sivullirmiut or "Dorset" culture in between 1500 AD-1000 AD, I won't be surprised if giants in oral legends were descriptions of cultures looking back at their predecessors that became obselete or wiped out through cultural shifts changes and transitions

[@angelikaskoroszyn8495]

I'm sorry but giant lore is boring. You just take a human and make them bigger. It's too easy to imagine how stories like this could independently evolve. Especially in cultures without systematic numbering system which BTW is a very new inventions Day 1: I've seen this tall man Day 2: my friend saw this huge man Day 3: my friend's friend saw a man so big he wouldn't fit in a hut . . . . Day 789: there're giants walking around

[@cecilyerker]

@@angelikaskoroszyn8495we have skeletons of giant people, hard to fake that

[@zadianvwhgaming]

there actually are volcanoes in Mexico though, lol

[@kalrandom7387]

Only 16 with 14 having a still active status.

[@jeffbrinkerhoff5121]

In northeast Indiana in the 60s three of my classmates were 7'+. The Heitz brothers at 7'3" and 7'4" and the bass player in my garage band was Chuck Bavis at 7'3".

[@artesiningart4961]

The guy in this video whose image, photo, or picture is used for Diego Gutiérrez is a Filipino. He is Diego Gutierrez, a Filipino singer/musician, celebrity, basketball player, and model. He is the younger brother of Janine Gutierrez, who is a Filipina television and film actress, television host, celebrity, and model. Both of them came from a well-known family, extended family, or clan of actors, celebrities, and television, film, entertainment, show business, and music industry personalities here in the Philippines. Their family, extended family, or clan on their father's side, have more or have strong or stronger mix of Spanish or Hispanic blood, heritage, and/or ancestry than or compared to their Filipino side or ethnicities of Tagalog and Cebuano. That's why him and his sister, as well as most of his extended family members of his family or clan from their father's side, inherited, have more, or have strong or stronger generally European or Western European, or more specifically Spanish or Hispanic physical features, traits, and/or characteristics from their paternal grandparents than or compared to most and the rest of the Filipino population, which, on the other hand, are mostly more native or indigenous/autochthonous Austronesians that are more related to native or indigenous/autochthonous Malays and Indonesians, among others like native or indigenous/autochthonous Taiwanese, Micronesians, and Polynesians, are also more ethnically and/or racially mixed or ambiguous of various or varied and diverse ethnicities, nationalities, and/or races, and/or are more mixed with a few to some other foreign or non-Filipino ethnicities, nationalities, and/or races from East Asia, the rest of Southeast Asia, Northern America, South Asia, and/or the West/Southwest Asia or the Middle East, aside from Western Europe and Latin America, among other regions. Him and his older sister and their other siblings also inherited American (White) physical features, traits, and/or characteristics from their mother and their mother's biological father. His and his older sister and other siblings' paternal grandfather is also mixed with other foreign or non-Filipino ethnicities and/or nationalities, which are all or at least mostly White, other European, or other Western European, aside from Spanish or Hispanic.

[@anhleroy]

I work in Utilities mapping (GIS). Appreciate Joe for talking about maps. Just Know the maps you see on here and social media feeds are just as valid as the giants map. If a map doesn’t have the source and a legend then they can say anything and the fact that it is a map will cause people to believe it. It’s driving me crazy how often I see it😅

[@vindipi1]

Not enough people learn map reading anymore... It is frustrating.

[@veramae4098]

I think I love you. Retired librarian

[@veramae4098]

@@vindipi1 Read about another frustrated teacher quitting. *36 kids* in his class. You can't do anything with that. We need classes maximum size *10*.

[@vindipi1]

@veramae4098 15 to 20 is doable, but it can't be baby sitting. If teens, or younger, aren't interested in learning there is no teaching them. The traditional education structure needs a new drawing board, starting with how administrators are hired, paid, and how much power they weild.

[@FLPhotoCatcher]

@@vindipi1 There is a reason home schooled kids get better grades on average.

[@jcarey568]

There may indeed have been a race of tall people in Argentina there are many tribes of short people in Latin America. If the two are juxtaposed, you could get one twice the height of the other. The race of giants may have fallen prey to small pox or some other old world disease. Lewis and Clark recounted tribes numerous and powerful on their trips, who were wiped out by disease in a few years. Humboldt recounts how Havana would lose tens of thousands every few years to malaria aka yellow fever.

[@hackman669]

Sad

[@kellydalstok8900]

Spanish people still aren’t very tall in general. Anyone around 2 meters tall, which is not that uncommon where I live, would seem like a giant. We don’t think someone is uncommonly tall unless they’re over 2.10 meters.

[@DatBoi-mo9vc]

​@@kellydalstok8900found someone from the land of giants

[@AaronOfMpls]

@@kellydalstok8900 Plus in Magellan's day, lots of Europeans had their growth stunted by childhood illness and occasional malnutrition. The Americas didn't have nearly as much of either* until after Europeans arrived, so their native people were often a fair bit taller. Even in eastern North America, the English explorers and colonists of the 15-1600s often remarked on how tall and healthy the natives were. * due to lower population density, and almost no domestic animals to get diseases from

[@notthemama7296]

Here is what really happened. The Patagonians heard that the weird looking pasty people were coming through, they had heard that these weirdos always like to take notes on everything they see so they took some really tall guys and then has some really short people stand on their knees but made their cloths up so it looked like they were standing but with really big heads and then stood on the shore together and threw sharp sticks at the explorers and just played a good prank.

[@GeoffryGifari]

it was 3 patagonian kids stacked on top of each other in a patagonian analog of a trench coat

[@notthemama7296]

@@GeoffryGifari Now I am imagining them just sticking some moss and vines to their faces to make a false beard only convincing from like 50+ feet away.

[@heather173]

Happy to have subbed to Nebula for my Christmas present. I followed so many of you here, anyway.

[@hasanx8066]

Hearing Andres name years after his passing is always cool and its never a bad word.

[@christopherlawley1842]

Given "The Princess Bride" he'll never be forgotten

[@JoeJohnston-taskboy]

Honestly, if you knew him, Hieronymous could be a little inflexible at times and then be complete apathetic.

[@garyfreeman7122]

I heard he was a real stand-up guy, but politically he was prone to flip-flopping

[@phonuz]

I’m sorry but that’s just revisionist history. By all contemporaneous accounts, he was a total dick.

[@Pyronimous]

​@@phonuz Give him a break, he had hard days working on those maps, so he often erupted at everyone around.

[@joshmakarenko5809]

I've also heard it could be very difficult to get a hold of him. Often wandering the grounds around his manor you'd have to search the bushes to find him

[@DruNature]

@@phonuz wasn't he a complete softy?

[@takitakiboom]

The volcano in Mexico actually isn't an embellishment. Popocatépetl lords over Mexico City and erupted just this year, and the ancient crater of Xico sits on the outskirts of the city.

[@cillyhoney1892]

I grew up in Oklahoma and every full blooded Cherokee that I ever met was tall and stout. Danes are tall too because of their lifestyle a thousand years ago. It's not out of the realm of possibility that they meet people that were very tall too because of their lifestyle. To the medieval Europeans, used to people being small because of malnutrition, meeting people who were tall and well nourished must have made them seem like giants to them.

[@lmotaku]

Obviously I'm built different, but I grew to be taller than both my parents at 6'4, and starting in my 30s I started having issues with varicose veins. I could only imagine what health issues someone 7ft+ would have, let alone 450ft. lol The human body is a vessel that, even under particular conditions, stretched past it's base capacity or less than tends to create a myriad of different problems. My great grandfather was the only one super tall, about my height or taller in my family tree, so that's likely where it came from. Shorter people have higher risk of cholesterol and high blood pressure.

[@surferdude4487]

A person 450 feet tall would have a minimum blood pressure of 225 PSI. I don't think that any organic matter could withstand that much pressure. However a GJKR (giant japanese killer robot) could easily be that big.

[@srinivastatachar4951]

Unless you were a subspecies with all physiological processes adapted to that size, like those of a giraffe. Now, even that couldn't begin to allow for a physical body of a height of about 450 feet in Earth's gravity (unless you were an aquatic creature)! But, I believe about 10 to 20 ft in height is not outside the realm of possibility. =======================================

[@QuantumS1ngularity]

I am 6'3, currently 36 yo and right about 2 years ago started having the same issue with the veins. But the interesting parts is that all of my family on my father's side, from where i got the height, have always been above 6'0 for at least 5 generations before me, my dad is 6'2, my grandpa was 6'1, great grandpa 6'1... none of them has had these issues. I got the genes from my mother's side where it's an occurring theme for at least 3 generation before me, despite them having a much more common stature of 5'8.

[@Hajduk-Kralj]

Do you work on your feet and standing a lot?

[@lmotaku]

@@Hajduk-Kralj Yes, I worked supervising departments and managed a restaurant. In retail/service well over 9 years. I would do that on the side of web development. I moved more into using my coding side after college and took a large break during covid. Never went back. Worked nights in inventory when restrictions letup, much less stress, less hours and better pay. The feet/leg damage has never healed, though. I just manage it. Shoulder damage for the most part has.

[@bob_._.]

Tiny dogs didn't take thousands of years to breed; it actually happened fairly quickly after Queen Victoria received Looty the Pekingese captured from the Chinese Imperial palace in 1860. Tiny dogs immediately became the fashion and breeders developed miniature breeds in just a few years.

[@Zanockthael]

Yeah, that's actually one of the most interesting things about dogs. The HUGE variations of types and sizes can be breed in pretty quickly, which means that, for some reason, all this potential is already in their genetic code. Thinking about it as I'm typing, it might be the result of all the breeding done thousands of years ago, so that now the domestic dog has a ton of innate variety from all the previous breeding. Which would make Joe technically right, it would have taken thousands of years to get from wolves to chihuahuas. But once there, you could get from a irish wolf hound to something like a chihuahua much faster.

[@TheEbrithil2]

Regarding the fossil connections to Griffins and Cyclopes, you might want to read Mark Wittons articles on the topic, "Unicorns, dragons, monsters and giants: palaeoart before palaeontology" and "Why Protoceratops almost certainly wasn't the inspiration for the griffin legend" Sorry for the large font, youtube app won't let me change it

[@kemh1982]

From 8th grade to our early 20's my best friend's boyfriend was 7ft 3in. He was always ducking & tilting his head to avoid door frames, ceiling fans & various other obstacles. It almost felt like we lived in different overlapping dimensions or something because he was constantly encountering some kind of height based issue. he couldn't fit in most sedans (forget sports cars), issues with public restrooms, he couldn't fit in some of the desks at school, chairs in public places were too small, he was constantly hitting his head on light fixtures, he had to lean down to reach most door knobs, he had to custom order his shoes & clothing to fit him, his feet fell off the end of regular mattresses when he laid down... Just tons of stuff that he dealt with on a daily basis. but i think all that leaning and squeezing into a 5ft world when you're 7ft has a bigger impact on the 7ft bone structure than we give credit/think about..it was visible in the way he walked by the time he was a teenager but would it have been if he didn't have to lean, crouch & squeeze into so much everyday?

[@jkarnold100]

I loved this, as a relatively tall person myself, 6’6’’, it’s awesome to hear about the actual giants. This one is a little out of the channels wheel house, but the player tied for tallest NBA player is Manute Bol. He was Sudanese and from the Dinka tribe. He was 7’6’’. His son is in the league now and is listed at 7’2’’.

[@ogolow570]

Dinka people are insanely tall. The ones I know who grew up in the west average between 6’ 3 and 6’5.

[@picklewart5382]

Those at the 6ft mark are half-giants. It's in the blood, remember the elders ...

[@picklewart5382]

Those at the 6ft mark are half-giants. It's in the blood, remember the elders ...

[@JoshBeFreeTV]

Manute stated in an interview that his Grandfather was 7'10" as well. And that a female ancestor of his was actually 8'.

[@jkarnold100]

@@JoshBeFreeTV I thought that when I commented originally but I couldn’t remember what interview it was and couldn’t recall what heights he said. 8 feet is insane!!

[@squishy312]

I'm 192 cm (6'3"), and my great grandpa was 200 cm (6'7"). My family is from western Finland. I don't know if the general population is taller there or not, but there have been a lot of tall people in my family. Most things seem small to me, but I can't imagine being any taller than I am. Things would get very inconvenient very fast.

[@DigitalJedi]

Fellow long guy checking in. The Dutch side of my family has been pretty consistently over 190cm for at least my great grandfather and later. I'm the longest of us right now at 2.1m. I do not fit on planes. My bike is a special size and comically large compared to normal 26" and 29" bikes my friends have.

[@mikeoxmall69420]

Oh god the aeroplanes 😬😬😬

[@harrisdizdarevic5797]

This video was almost back to the old comfortable form. Keep at it. The vibes were not toxic at all. Very good 👍🏻

[@revolutioninprint8906]

Great job, man. You're doing the world a service.

[@markhoulsby359]

Great video, as always, thank you. I watched it on Nebula. A small heads-up: in Portuguese, the vowel pair aõ (with a tilds above the o) implies an invisible n, which should be pronounced. Hence Saõ Paolo is pronounced _San_ Paolo, and Patagaõ is Patagaon.

[@windy110]

Sorry for the deleted reply, i misread the comment

[@markhoulsby359]

@@windy110 No problem. If I had a penny for every time I did the equivalent, I'd have... nearly a dollar.

[@nyeponpon]

The tild is usually above the A letter, unless it is a plural of some words: Lição - Lições Missão - Missões Pão - Pães Mãe- Mães Not sure if by San Paolo you meant the brazillian city, but that would be São Paulo for example :)

[@markhoulsby359]

@@nyeponpon Thank you!

[@Greksallad]

I thought it was a nasal marker?

[@glorrin]

A race of exceptionaly tall people I am pretty sure they are called the Dutch.

[@AlphaMachina]

I think they just wanted something to hype up future return trips to the "New World." To keep people excited about it. Also, when you've got weeks on a ship as a return voyage, maybe a bit delirious from the travel, subsisting on dried and cured foodstuffs, you might amp up the details in your mind just from excitement. This was a time of tall tales, fish stories and one-ups in taverns, where every time someone tells a story, someone else has to do something to amp up the excitement of their own tale just to top it, otherwise no one would care to listen. I bet every time they told the story, the patagao got taller and taller.

[@Turkish__Model]

So many parallels between Hittite and Germanic mythology. 🇹🇷

[@underarmbowlingincidentof1981]

The thing with giants is that the idea of "a man but really big" is like one of the most natural stories humans can come up with. It's like with the many religions which have a "big flood" myth which makes sense the moment you realize early humans all lived near rivers which tended to flood, so the idea of someone making a story which goes "one day the river flooded bigger than ever before and the water did not stop rising" is really no surprise.

[@squirlmy]

Although, this story is post-Dark Age literate Europe, and these stories are about particular places, written as factual by specific writers. Your theory makes more sense for pre-Bronze Age Biblical myths. And, isn't it just as natural to imagine little people? We have just as many, if not more stories of small people, why didn't they report tiny people in Patagonia? I feel like you're dismissing it with a hand wave "it's natural". There's a lot more to it than that!

[@TheNorthwestForager]

Something that makes the many different version of the flood story noteworthy is despite their variety they all maintain the same theme: god/gods caused the flood, a chosen set of people recieve direction how to build a vessel to survive it, everyone else dies in the global deluge.

[@summerblossom4610]

Even in the Bible the promised Land of the Jews was populated by giants and they sent one guy to find this out because up until this point they were being slaughtered and set upon almost constantly, so they were really cautious. Upon the scout coming back he told them that the place was filled with giants

[@jackbuff_I]

there's a famous old photo from around the 40's or 50's I'd guess, but in it, is 1 normal sized man, and he's flanked by 2 identical looking giant men that were wearing a purple and uniform of sorts, which included a tall hat in the colours. They resembled (facially at least) Jaws from the Bond movies. They were all smiling and were apparently from a tribe of people that were all like that. Doesn't seem too much a stretch (pun inc) to think there were a few huge tribes out there.

[@assininecomment1630]

I think you're talking about a photo taken in 1903. A Murrrcan photographer, called James Ricalton was covering a large colonial era celebration event. There were several pics taken of him posing with one or both of Kashmiri twin brother tribesmen. _"One of the giants was 7’9” tall (2.36 m) while the “shorter” one was a mere 7’4” tall (2.23 m) and according to various sources they were indeed twin brothers."

[@darsynia]

I've been obsessed with human anthropology all summer and Becoming Human is great, strong rec. Great video, Joe!!

[@Cocoanutty0]

Anthropology is the study of humans (it’s what the anth part means).

[@BearJwG]

I did a study abroad called tracing Darwins path where we went throught the Beagle channel from Punta Arenas (brief open ocean) to Puerto Williams Chile and never once met a race of giants. I was so disappointed. Very incredible part of the world!

[@Ezekku]

Oh I live in Patagonia! :D (Bariloche, Argentina), not giants over here. But we have the Nahuelito, a monster of the Nahuel Huapi lake. A long distant cousin of Ness, there was a theory at some point that it was the same monster, migrating using underwater tunels. Amazing dude :p

[@nathanb5579]

We got one in south patagonia

[@maillardsbearcat]

Do people wear Patagonia brand clothing in Patagonia?

[@Ezekku]

@@maillardsbearcat kind of, mostly tourists because those clothes are more of a souvenir than anything else :p

[@mason4354]

Along the same lines is Champ in lake Champlain. Same explanation and connection to Nessie too 😂

[@DeepThinker193]

This is it. I've found my childs next name.

[@DefenderoftheTrees]

Don’t you mean your next child’s name 🧐😆

[@godsoloved24]

Your child's next name or your next child's name?

[@davidbeppler3032]

He said what he said.

[@DefenderoftheTrees]

@@davidbeppler3032 thank you captain obvious..

[@johng4093]

Children typically don't appreciate being given weird names.

[@dariasmeh]

Hey @joescott - the only reference I found for Gravettians being in and from the Bosnia and area region is from one 1976 journal article that details the findings of remains in Bosnia. But all other references cite Gravettians being in Czechia to Italy, Spain and Portugal. Is what you found indicating that they moved into this Bosnian area, like settled in Bosnia before no longer being present as a community? Or that people in the Bosnian area inter-married/bred with Gravettian people and their genetics continue within current modern Bosnians and people in other countries in the area.

[@JoycenatorGaming]

My favorite (likely completely meritless, mind you) pet hypothesis I’ve heard on this subject is that Magellan encountered a pocket population of an extinct species of giant ground sloth that used to live in the area. Modern Gauchos in the region still have a Bigfoot-like legend but a key difference from Bigfoot is that their creature has a tail, which lines up with the extinct sloths. These creatures would have been quite tall (8-11 feet or roughly 3 meters) and walked upright similarly to humans. Again, likely a meritless idea but a fun one to think about all the same 🙂

[@illRIDDLA]

Great video! “Tierra de patagones” was actually named that because “pata” = foot. And the “gones” is an exaggeration ending. So it’s actually closer to “Land of the people with big feet.” This to say, there still were a lot of writings confirming stories of monsters and fantastic creatures /beings. It can be argued that most of these are done in error due to poor translation and others can argue that it was in an attempt to justify their superiority and differences over the people they found there. Edits: spelling and voice-to-text fixes

[@AaronOfMpls]

Not to mention Europeans of the time often had their growth stunted by childhood illness and malnutrition -- making them 4-6 inches/10-15 cm shorter than people from the same places today. So imagine these explorers and their sailors finding a tribe whose men routinely grow a foot taller than they're used to seeing. The tribe send their biggest, fiercest-looking men out to see what the hairy-faced strangers on the big strange boat are up to. The tribesmen are strong and healthy, and maybe wearing loosefitting furs if the weather is a bit cool. Distance, intimidation factor, and not having rulers or measuring tape handy all combine to make the tribesmen _seem_ even bigger than they are to the Europeans. If it's a colder part of the year, maybe there are footprints in the snow on shore, enlarged by thick bootwraps and further enlarged by snowmelt/snow evaporation. Combine that with _giant_ bones on shore from Patagonia's fossil beds,* and you maybe can see how a story might get going. Other explorers and sailors see and report on similar-enough things later, and pretty soon it's expected in accounts of the region. * only later would naturalists and scientists actually identify what extinct animals these came from

[@michellewilliams4000]

Joe! No mention of the Karankawas from the south Texas coast who were purported to average 6-7’ in height? Oh, yeah, and we’re cannibals who ate their enemies- usually Spanish tapas😂

[@the_original_Bilb_Ono]

6-7" in height!? Man that's tiny! Not even a foot tall! You could fit them in your pocket!

[@michellewilliams4000]

Corrected!

[@clwest3538]

@@the_original_Bilb_Ono Do not doubt the power of the Lilliputian! They write epic poetry about their culture and the misfortunes of the 'giants' who dare to visit them! Gulliver and co.

[@clwest3538]

@@michellewilliams4000 oh ... darn ...

[@walterkoscienski5900]

Loved this! What a rabbit hole to fall into!

[@AndreMB94]

1:02 cannibals in Brazil is an accurate depiction. Lots of tribes in Brazil practiced ritualistic canibalism to absorb the powers of the killed "warrior" for themselves. Old people and kids also engaged in the ritual. A german named Hans Staden had a real account about it. if I'm not mistaken he almost got eaten himself, but managed to escape

[@kathleenyes-cp2uf]

Andre was so cool. I’m so glad he did the Princess Bride so we can see him smile and drop a deadpan line.

[@bradeurich5183]

How could you not use this as an excuse to break out your iconic Andre The Giant action figure from your old set!?

[@Mark_GL]

First time i watch the channel, but you got a new sub thanks to the Atlas Pro shout out.

[@SomasAcademy]

~3:57 Looks like Joe misread something, the height of Middle Paleolithic Europeans like the Gravettians was estimated at 2 meters (which is 6.6 feet, not 6'6" as the video says) by one 19th century scholar, but more evidence has pushed the estimated average height of Gravettian men down to between 5'10"-6'2", so a mean of about 6'0". The average height for Gravettian women was also noticeably much smaller, only about 5'2".

[@braydenmaine4818]

If Goliath himself had gigantism, suffering from a potential adenoma tumor on his pituitary gland. Getting hit in the head with a rock in a sling has a high chance of killing someone with that condition.

[@scottydu81]

He got hit in the head with a rock flung from a sling. That would kill most people. Those were very effective weapons.

[@pressaltf4forfreevbucks179]

Dont underestimate a good sling

[@Big_Man_Enjoyer]

@@scottydu81that and the head trauma from falling would certainly do the job if a fast-moving rock didn’t, especially at his height

[@umbrellastation25]

​@@scottydu81 there's a reason they were used in warfare in formations

[@JavierEscuella1911]

Actual slinger here. A good slinger can launch rocks up to 100 meters in a few seconds. They make holes in the ground 2-3 inches deep. Depending on the shape of the rock, they can whistle mid air. Regardless of gigantism, it can and will kill anyone if thrown correctly. David and Goliath was not a fair match. It’s like putting a 10 year old with a Glock in front of a 6,10 guy.

[@olumsezbey]

As a pure work of fiction on giants there is a really old book I think you would enjoy. “Gargantua and Pantagruel” by Francois Rabelais back in the 1500’s. I found it comical and a great read. Please try it.

[@Sorenzo]

The first person to circumnavigate the globe was a guy named Enrique, who left the area around Indonesia, went to Spain, then got on Magellan's voyage which ended up around the Indonesia area, where Enrique could finally fulfil his role as translator. I think he was an enslaved person, but I don't remember the details, or whether he took any part of this journey voluntarily.

[@michaelewen5498]

What a great wedding gift for Wendigoon!

[@Yezpahr]

The Netherlands also had a giant, Grutte Pier. He was 2.15m tall and had a sword almost as long as himself, just 2 centimeters shorter than himself. (But sources vary by a few centimeters.) Can't believe you missed that one.

[@assininecomment1630]

Joe probably didn't mention Pier, because 2.15m is slightly less than 7'1".

[@theriverschool822]

I was just reading about the 14" Pedro Mummy found in North America last night. That mummy disappeared in 1950, but they did do x-rays first. The speculation at the times, is that it could confirm the myths of the small tribe of people in that area from local native folklore. Famous actor of the time, Tom Thumb, was only 2-ft tall, so this wasn't too much of a stretch for people to believe. Some modern push-back (from people who never saw the mummy in person,) speculate it could be a mummified baby or fetus. (The funny part is the first owner had the problem of "everyone thinking they looked fake" just like Nazca mummies. So, regular people back then had the confidence they were experts in the field of mummies just like today.) When Europeans brought over diseases from the old world, they are thought to have wiped out 70-90% of the population of the Americas. The diseases spread quicker than the explorers. It's possible, humans with mutations toward gigantism and dwarfism were more vulnerable. Humans in dry regions near rivers (not Oceans) tend to be the ones we know the most about, since they are the only places remains are well preserved. We found 23,000 year old human tools and footprints in North America, but the oldest human remains here are 13,000 years old. That's at least a time-span of 10,000 years without a single body preserved/found. We really can't expect to find proof of every human variation.

[@Rodrigo_Vega]

It seems pretty conclussive it was an anencephalic infant.

[@theriverschool822]

​@@Rodrigo_Vega I disagree. It's not "very conclusive." It's speculation. I did include that theory in my initial post. I see you provided the same amount of science to back that idea up as I did.

[@Rodrigo_Vega]

​@@theriverschool822 It was studied by specialists in the University of Wyoming; anthropologist George Gill and the Denver Children's Hospital did a DNA study and radiocarbon dated it to the 1700. Seems pretty conclussive to me. Futhermore it really does look like an anencephalic infant if you've seen one. Why otherwise would a mummy have a flat head almost entirely missing the dome of its skull? It's one of the toughest parts of human anatomy and even terribly conserved mummies... well, skeletons have them in place. Seems we have two possible explanations here: Either the thing is a perfectly well known thing that we know exists and specialists tasked to study it agree it is just that. Or a mysterious thing that most likely doesn't exists but sounds cooler.

[@johng4093]

So the proof conveniently disappeared? Like how Bigfoot and Nessie pictures are always fuzzy.

[@ChicagoFaucet.etc.]

I believe that, with the wide variety of biodiversity that has existed on Earth over the ages, this is definitely somewhere between "possible" to "plausible" - especially if the race of humans was isolated. There are the conspiracy theories about giant skeletons that were unearthed in the early 1900s across North America. When the archaeologists sent them to the Smithsonian for cataloguing (and personal fame), everyone single one was lost - even though there are entries showing that they did arrive at the Smithsonian.

[@testedTransgressor]

Love how you shouted out AtlasPro, such a great channel for anyone interested in geography and biogeography. Was fully prepared to sicc Miniminuteman on this video NGL but you definitely covered it well and highlighted that we DONT have real evidence for any "lost civilisations" of giants

[@Artak091]

If there's one thing I know about humans, it's that we're good at making other species more deader. So I fully believe if we ever encountered a bunch of 9 foot tall people that looked like us they ended up in a zoo or fertilizer. Like 100 years ago some Asian and African people were kept in a human zoo as an exhibit. And this time period is way more civilized than like 1000 years ago.

[@fnansjy456]

100 years ago more like 50

[@ArcticTron]

Wow seeing Atlas Pro mentioned in a Joe Scott video is kind of a weird feeling, it's always strange whenever I'm reminded that KZbinrs do indeed watch other KZbinrs in their free time, especially KZbinrs that you yourself watch. Honestly I respect you for watching Atlas Pro he is definitely one my favorite science related channels that I've discovered in recent years.

[@LearndingLife]

It's interesting how many old world cultures have stories of giants who ate people who were out to death by war, stories of floods, different structures from around the world sharing similarities as if from a mother culture. Kinda makes me wonder, if the stories are there and shared by so many, could they be discussing older history or ancient truths?

[@kedbreak136]

There is a wonderful KZbin channel that looks at ancient myths across cultures and looks into possible ancient origins, some dating way back into the Stone Age like 40k years ago. Crecganford is the channel, and it’s really interesting.

[@leekestner1554]

There is a silent Japanese film from the earliest moving pictures. It is a film depicting an parade in which a Japanese giant is walking in the parade. He was huge and built like a sumo wrestler. He told the Japanese who asked him to march in the parade that he was the last of a giant people.

[@mr.knightthedetective7435]

There's a story here on KZbin about a Navy Seal vet who fought against a barbaric 6-fingered giant in Kandahar, according to that vet his team was slaughtered by the said giant and he was the only survivor, coping with PTSD of what he saw in Kandahar

[@squirlmy]

"Coping with PTSD" is probably the operative phrase there!

[@nocomment2468]

Isn’t 5’9” the average male height? Not the average human height, right? I don’t mean to be critical/pedantic! I just think that it’s an important distinction.

[@squirlmy]

I had always heard the average male height was 5'10". And I'm not sure if that's a mean or median height. Like, does the large number of Chinese (I guess Han ethnic group specifically), skew that downward? It seems like the number is always going to be politically incorrect in some way, I'm not sure I want to go down that rabbit hole.

[@steveswangler6373]

The legends most likely started by shoddy memories. The recorders wrote fantastical accounts and by the time the sailors returned home, months even years later, they exaggerated even more. And the legends persisted because for some reason many people prefer fantasies to reality, that’s why Bigfoot and Nessie persist without evidence

[@MeganVictoriaKearns]

Yes! Each time the story is retold it's (deliberately or unconsciously) exaggerated. By the time the sailors return to shore with their tales of adventure from their year+ at sea, a 6'2 man is now a literal giant. Makes absolute sense. (Well, to me it does.)

[@scottdebruyn7038]

When you mentioned 10,000 years of directed evolution of dogs, it got me thinking... what if an advanced species came along and took us as 'pets' and companions. If we underwent directed evolution over 10,000 years, what might we look like? 🤔😏

[@Vonononie]

I’ve seen people on TikTok say there is proof of giants in South America as there are ‘giant steps’ cut into the mountains. They are farming terraces, which are needed because of the terrain. If people with the almost infinite access to the internet think they are steps for giants, chances are a few sailors thought the same back in the day

[@Arkantos117]

It doesn't seem that far fetched that there was a tribe of tall people who were g-cided by their neighbours. IIRC there are similar stories amongst Northern American tribes. The giants were often accused of cannibalism which actually is a common theme around the world when it comes to talking about them.

[@heretech7025]

Im related to Angus MacAskill. The giant nobody has heard of lol. Almost all the boys from that side of the family are huge. Always make it a point to visit his house when at the family cottage in Englishtown. To be that big and not be hindered by any deformity must have been a sight to behold. Would probably have been some legendary figure if born a few centuries earlier.

[@romdurb101]

Pleasantly surprised by this video. subbed.

[@185MDE]

Such a missed opportunity to nerd out on “square cube law” at 2:44 …. You’re slippin bro! 😂

[@nyeponpon]

Didn't think I would see Atlas Pro being mentioned here. It's a great channel for those who are enthusiastic about geography and especially biogeography :)

[@longiusaescius2537]

@nyeponpon very nice pfp! Where's it from?

[@nyeponpon]

@@longiusaescius2537 its a fanart from the anime Madoka Magica. Unfortunately I don't recall the name of the artist :/

[@longiusaescius2537]

@@nyeponpon unfortunate, I'll try reverse image searching it

[@darkwaterhermit]

That was really fun and interesting, thank you Joe Scott

[@angelikaskoroszyn8495]

It's worth noting that in earlier manuscripts of Old Testament (found among Dead Sea Scrolls) describe Goliath as a big dude but not giant. I think it's easy to imagine how became "taller" over the centuries to make David's triumph even greater

[@TheMinisterofDefence]

i'm not disagreeing with you how easy it is for things to be exaggerated over time, but would also like to point out if this were just an issue of making things bigger over time, then you would also have to accept that the description of Goliath's weapons and armor were very consistently also exaggerated to match. not to mention his bones, which were said to have been kept at the temple until its destruction by the Babylonians in 589, some four hundred years after David's conquest of Goliath. Then of course we have all the other Biblical references to Giants, including their creation story as being the "sons of God and the daughters of men". i.e. demigod type creatures. I have no doubt that things DO get exaggerated over time, but it seems like within the Biblical narrative itself, there would have been no need to exaggerate. Of course, everyone is welcome to dis-believe these stories outright, but i'm not convinced that we necessarily have to look for a compromise. but that's my angle. i just appreciate that you brought up the biblical narrative. i love these topics, because there is so much fruit for discussion here.

[@AlexTrusk91]

Thank you for including both measurement systems. Especially on this one.

[@labeilleautiste6318]

Nice profil picture

[@AlexTrusk91]

same, brings back some childhood memories@@labeilleautiste6318

[@wihdinheim0]

Hey Joe, love you! Have you ever investigated the most common organism on this planet? The _pelagibacter ubique_ is fascinating, we only discovered it recently and we're still trying to understand many aspects of it. It happens to have a streamlined genome, evolution unlike anything we've seen in other organisms, plays a major role in ecological importance and shows a highly conservative DNA sequence. It's pretty much the perfect terraforming agent! _What a crazy coincidence_ how our most common organism that clearly played a key role in terraforming this planet, just happens to have all these genetic quirks!

[@SeverinSnake]

In the Odyssey, Homer spoke about Polyphemus, who lived with other giants, presumably living in different nearby caves, a sort of community, or race, in a region of Crete.

[@catherinegrillos8739]

Well done. Appreciate a fresh perspective on the gazillions videos about giants