Giants

Published August 8, 2025

Giants are featured in the mythologies of many cultures globally. However, many of these same cultures also have ‘little people’ in their folklore ^(a). In Ireland, they were known as leprechauns.

Some commentators have striven to prove that a race of giants, as described in the Bible, such as the Nephilim, actually existed. This idea appeared to gain traction with the discovery of what appeared to be human bones in the 19th and early 20th centuries, that suggested above normal stature. This has led to ongoing controversy. A study of the biblical Goliath and his family is relevant here^(j).

There is a rare genetic form of giantism known as acromegaly. The BBC published an interesting article on the genetic mutation that causes the condition being more common in Mid Ulster in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the British Isles^(h). A scientific study confirmed this localised prevalence⁽ⁱ⁾.

Wikipedia has noted that the giants’ bones were either the result of “hoaxes, scams, fabrications or the misidentifications of extinct megafauna”^(b). It also notes that as early as 1934, the idea of giants was debunked by Aleš Hrdlicka, curator of anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution^(l). The Smithsonian has since been accused of a cover-up by creationists and conspiracy theorists. However, that institution has been ably defended by more rational researchers, such as Jason Colavito ^(c)(d)(e). He returned to the subject again in August 2025^(k), when it was reported that US congressman Eric Burlinson, a creationist and UFO believer, suggested that there should be an investigation into the claim that the Smithsonian is hiding the bones of biblical giants!

A more recent development has been the linking of giants with Atlantis. I suspect that in some instances, Atlantis was added to the book titles, simply to enhance their salebility! The best known and probably the earliest extensive study came from Denis Saurat in the 1950s ^[536][537]. Since then, many, such as Tony Finlay^(f), have touched on the subject. Richard Cassaro has advocated that megalithic structures in Italy had been built by giants from Atlantis^(g). In the 2020s, the related book titles became more blatant – Giants of Atlantis^[2115] (Patrick Chouinard, 2025), Giants and Atlantis^[2114] (Laurent Glauzy, 2015). However. hard, irrefutable evidence is still lacking.