Are there any archeological evidences that suggest the existence of giant men on earth in ancient times?

Question

Some accounts in the Bible tell us that the fallen angels mated with human daughters, which produced giant men with super-human strength.
Since I have very little knowledge of archeology I have not been able to gather any evidence for this.

Any scientific minded guys out there? Please help.

Also, Folks with oversized imagination are not invited. Please try to quote references in support of your answers.

- Froggy

Answer 1

I have always wondered about this,in my studying of different ancient people you do come across accounts of giant like people,mostly ive read of them in eurasia [mainly russia].I remember reading in the moscow times recently about a massive ancient human foot that was found.

When you think of the amount of mythologies/stories that have giants in them you do wonder there basis.

Answer 2

Well froggy, there is information all over the web; I would suppose.
What is a giant? Is a giant someone almost 6 feet tall, maybe 6’1”? If everybody in your tribe is 4’ 6” to 5’3” a 6 footer would be a giant. What do you think those people would say to one of our basketball players?
People in prehistory were not as tall as modern people and the average life span for much of the times supposedly covered by the bible were probably late 20’s or early 30’s.
Oddly enough the Greek philosopher/scientist/mathematician/genius Democritus, you will remember him as the first person to speak of the “atom” responding to the misassumption by Socrates and the famous wind, earth, fire and water assumption, may have actually lived to near or over 100 years.
There are individuals mentioned in the bible with life spans of 7, 8 or over 900 years. Whether scholars agree that the translators confused lunar cycles with solar cycles or the claims were the result of the author “P” attempting to create a written chronology of biblical figures stemming from the Adam and Eve story is under discussion. In any case gigantism is unsupported by the evidence. When unusually large humans occur the cause is almost always found to be some growth disorder. The exception to this appears to be certain tribes in Southern Africa where the people are usually very tall. Individual examples of very tall people occur but are rare.
You might find the ubiquitous Wikipedia, article interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bao_Xishun
There is usually a reason for everything; we may not always understand the process by which something happens but that is sorry reason to assign the unknown, that which we do not understand, to some manmade construct such a miracle.
Jim D

Answer 3

There have always been very tall people. The tallest human recorded was d@mn near nine feet. The US has plenty of professional basketball players who top seven feet. Some African tribes are, on average, much taller than other groups. They're probably the closest to a race of giants that we have out there, especially as they'd look very, very tall to malnourished Europeans of the last millenium.

There really isn't evidence of any group that, today, we would consider giants. That's not to say that it couldn't happen; h. floriensis was a surprise just a few years ago. The myths and legends of various groups are probably based on a few unusually tall people or whispers of those tall people far to the south, or even from fossils theyfound. There's an extinct species called the gigantopithecus that was closely related to the orangutan. They were usually around 9 feet tall. They weren't bipedal, but their bones probably look close enough to human bones to be easily mistaken by laypeople. It's generally thought that dinosaurs gave rise to the idea of dragons, so it's not such a stretch.

Answer 4

Sorry, I can`t quote anything, but once I read that there are Myths in Argentina that tell of Giant`sized Humans living in Patagonia.
There is also a Myth of a Giant who lived in a village called Hecho in the Pyrrennees.
How is it, do you think , that some people grow so enormous? Could they be throw-backs of a very tall race of people that spread around the World, and then disappeared due being an easy target in Wars, or due to famine, etc..?

Answer 5

None I've ever heard of, and I'm pretty sure I would have heard, as I pay attention to this sort of thing.

Here's a really good website about human evolution:

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/human-evolution/dn9990

Edit for an afterthought while reading the other answers:

There are limits to how tall we could be: physical and biological limits.

So, if you mean "really tall" like over 7 feet, yes they've existed; but if you mean "giant" as in mythology, fantasy, Harry Potter, and the like, say, 20 feet or more, then, it wouldn't be possible.

Stephen Jay Gould, in Ever Since Darwin talks about the physical and biological limits on size.

Answer 6

People that we might call giants today fall within the realms of normality. The Masai in Africa are typically very tall, if a tribe of them was seen by your typical middle east Caucasian for the first time, they could easily be described as a race of giants.
I believe that stories in the Bible relating to giants are just interpretations based on such or similar meetings, passed on by unreliable word-of-mouth, and written down several years later by someone who had heard it after it had passed through such filtration layers of exaggeration and ignorance.

You have not been able to gather evidence of this because there is none. Giants did not exist.

Answer 7

First, the bible is not meant to be taken literally. Sure, it may be good at teaching morals but that's about it. Second, the closest evidence to a living giant was an ape called gigantipithicus (now extinct) which stood about ten feet tall and finds are mainly concentrated in Asia.
Last but not least I have to correct poster #1 Lucy was found by Donald Johanson NOT by the any of the Leakey's.

Answer 8

Although this isn't anthropology I'll try and answer it.
Professor Leaky, of Anthropology fame and "lucy" the ancient fossil remains found in Africa, was in Southern California looking for evidence to the stories of a Giant that supposedly run around in the past called the "Sandman"
Some evidence pointed to large footprints and other evidence like this.
Whether anything was ever found, I don't know but, it has to be looked into.

Answer 9

On the territory of the Northern China in recent times there was found a gigantic axe that had signs of some bloody work. An axe like that could be wielded by someone of the tremendous size and stature. May be people like this gave rise to stories about the "giants". I do have reasons to believe that there were people of the size and strength undoubtedly.

Answer 10

No, there is none. If there was we would all have heard about it. I read everything and watch everything I can find regarding various digs around the world and have for about 40 years. I'm no expert, just an person with a interest in history and archeology.