As depicted in the new History Channel series Search for the Lost Giants, stonemasons Jim Vieira and his brother Bill believe that newspapers of the nineteenth century recorded accurately the discovery of the bones of a lost race of giants who once towered over the American landscape. Since 1806, scholars have argued that many of these alleged “giant” skeletons were the misidentified remains of prehistoric mastodons and mammoths. (Not all, obviously; some humans were very tall.) So uncontroversial was this position that even the Vierias’ beloved newspapers said as much. In 1870, for example, the Memphis Daily Appeal noted that when it came to “giant” bones of the largest size scholars had “proved them, in almost every instance, to be portions of the fossils of mammoths, megatheriums, mastodons, etc.” But today the Vieiras and their “gigantology” colleagues like Greg Little and Nephilim theorist L. A. Marzulli deny that mammoth and mastodon bones were mistaken for human. Little, for example, in defending Jim Vieira, complained of me that “Colavito didn’t cite a single example of a hoax or a giant skeleton found in America that turned out to be a mastodon or mammoth.” So before we begin reviewing the Vieiras’ new series Search for the Lost Giants I want to share an interesting Victorian newspaper article I uncovered in my preparation research for his review. The article comes from the New York Times on July 5, 1891 and reports on events that took place in Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts. (You can read the piece in my Library.) There, the famous actor Joseph Jefferson (1829-1905) had purchased some property alongside ex-Pres. Grover Cleveland’s estate. His workmen discovered buried thereon a “giant” skeleton, hilariously described as shocking all involved by being 6-foot-5 in height. Anyway, that’s not the important part. This is: The most peculiar thing was brought to light, however, when the skull was taken to Mr. Jefferson and by him examined. It was like ordinary skulls, only larger, except that it had so far as could be seen, no place where the eyes had been. There was one hole in the center of the forehead that might have once served for one eye. This led Mr. Jefferson to believe that he had, perhaps, discovered the skeleton of a Cyclops. According to the Times, John Wilkes Booth’s brother Edwin and the “scientific gentlemen” in the area were equally perplexed. I, on the other hand, have yet to read a clearer illustration of Othenio Abel’s 1913 suggestion that the skulls of fossilized elephants (or, in this case, a juvenile mastodon or mammoth) inspired the myth of the Cyclops: “Immediately we see the huge, conspicuous hole in the middle of the forehead: it is the nostril, while the eye sockets are deep down on the sides of the high-arched skull” (my trans.). That hole was easily mistaken for one large eye. While we of course can’t say for certain what the bones Joe Jefferson saw were without seeing them ourselves, the description given by Jefferson could hardly offer more to help us see that even the civic leaders, prominent men, and “scientific gentlemen” claimed by Jim Viera et al. to be unlikely to ever mistake a mastodon for a human could and did make that mistake—at least sometimes—perhaps even more easily making the error if it were a juvenile skeleton closer to human height and lacking tusks. This isn’t just idle speculation—mastodon teeth have been found across Cape Cod and off shore as well. Anyway, I found this piece yesterday and thought it was a perfect microcosm of the problems with “gigantology.” The stories buried in old newspapers simply can’t be taken at face value, even when the supposed observers were impeccable sources. And that, in a nutshell, is the problem with Search for Ancient Giants, whose entire premise is that we should take most claims of giants at face value and abstract from them a lost race of giants rather than understand such stories as the product of a Biblical paradigm that shaped mastodons, above-average normal humans (6-7 feet tall), and the occasional (human) sufferer of gigantism into a lost race that never was. Now, on to the review. But before I start, there are a few elements of disclosure I need to reiterate for those just joining us:
It’s also good to remember that Vieira had a TEDx talk on lost giants pulled from the organization’s website for its failure to meet the minimal standards for scientific proof, endearing him to anti-science types. So with all of that, Search for the Lost Giants S01E01 “Unraveling the Mystery” naturally opens with the famous line from Genesis 6:4—“There were giants in the earth in those days...,” firmly establishing this series as taking place within a Biblical-creationist framework. They could have used any number of ancient quotes on giants, but it is the Bible that forms the very raison d’être for this series. After the Bible verse, we see Deerfield, Mass., which an on screen title informs us is the site of “giant” find as overwrought music and sound effects swell. The narrator tells us that the Vieira brothers’ efforts to find the empty grave of a lost giant is the quest “of a lifetime.” That there is a narrator suggests that the program wants to split the difference—unlike, say, America Unearthed—and keep the viewer at a bit of a distance from its characters, whom we are invited to view as characters rather than as experts. Jim Vieira explains how a book called The History of Deerfield, Massachusetts (1895) changed his life because of the following passage: At the foot of Bars Long Hill [...] many skeletons were exposed in plowing down a bank and weapons and implements were found in abundance. One of these skeletons was described to me by Henry Mather, who saw it, as being of monstrous size—“the head as big as a peck basket, with double teeth all round.” Mather, who was about six feet tall, made the comparison and says the thigh bones were about three inches longer than his own. The skeleton was examined by Dr. Stephen W. Williams, who said the owner must have been nearly eight feet high. In all the cases noted in the paragraph, the bodies had been placed in a sitting posture, facing the east. The two Vieiras reenact conversations they had about Jim’s obsession with giants in badly staged scenes designed to give us insight into their characters—Jim, the believer, and Bill, the former skeptic. Jim describes himself as a “mutant” who can remember every one of the 1,500 newspaper accounts he’s read. He asserts that Abraham Lincoln “talked about the discovery of giant bones,” though this is true only in a technical sense. In unpublished notes for a lecture on Niagara Falls, he cited newspaper accounts of giant bones in claiming that said giants looked upon the falls.
Vieira is very enthusiastic about double rows of teeth as a marker of giants, but I wonder if this trait isn’t related to not just the common dental condition that produces extra teeth (reported since antiquity) but also to the unusual dentition of the mastodon, whose teeth look like a double row of teeth due to their strange shape. Vieira tells us that Native Americans spoke of an “ancient enemy,” the cannibal giants, and he tells us that every human culture believes in some kind of giant. Therefore, there may well have been giants here in America. So where are these giants? Bill Vieira asserts that the nation’s museums have gotten rid of them. The narrator suggests that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was a conspiracy by the establishment (read: evolutionists) to ship the bones off for reburial so people like Vieira (read: Bible believers) wouldn’t be able to study them for evidence of giants (read: Bible). The narrator then tells us that “some” (read: David Childress) believe that early twentieth century scientists hid or destroyed the bones to protect the theory of evolution. “Academics know: Don’t touch it!” Bill says of giants, arguing that suppression was important for protecting “somebody’s view of human history.” As we flip over to the opening credits, it’s obvious that this show is intended as a carbon copy of its companion series Curse of Oak Island (the show’s logo is a color-inverted version of the one for Oak Island), and with it come all of the strengths and faults of its model. The show is heavily focused on the character of the two brothers, and we’re supposed to enjoy watching what is essentially a reality show with a conspiracy background; this is never more evident than when the TEDx controversy comes up and the brothers break down when discussing “mean-spirited responses” to Jim’s low-information presentations on giants, appealing to sepia-toned images of their father and leading Bill to talk of how he would “stick up for my little brother. […] We’re going to go take on some bullies.” (Oddly, when Jim attacked me as a “troll” on a “crusade” that wasn’t mean-spirited bullying at all! He’s just so warm and fuzzy!) I am disturbed at the implication that scientists and skeptics are bullies; not only does this create a persecution mentality, but it also asks the audience to see scientists as an oppressive enemy to be taken on, perhaps pugnaciously. Back to the plot: The Vieiras are trying to locate the empty grave of the Deerfield giant using ground penetrating radar—because that evil conspiracy that is NAGPRA prevents them from conducting archaeological excavations of a grave without government permission. The Vieiras find radar indication of a twelve-foot stone, and then they punch each other to “show love.” Since the men can’t dig, they ask “the establishment”—a New York archaeologist—about their find. Note that they do not make a case to the state archaeologist’s office. The archaeologist tells them that it’s unlikely that they discovered a giant’s grave, and that one needs bones, not newspapers, to prove that giants once existed. So, abandoning this line of inquiry, the men travel to Goshen, Mass. to look at the Goshen Mystery Tunnel, an underground stone structure of uncertain date. Many believe it’s colonial, but some fringe types argue that it is Bronze Age on account of its similarity to British Bronze Age tombs, built in a dry stone construction style used down to this very day. It is composed of a 15 foot shaft with two small tunnels just 2 feet high branching off from it. What the giants would want with 2 foot tall shafts, I can’t imagine. They wouldn’t fit. The brothers plan to “document” the site in the hopes of finding evidence of giants within, particularly a large burial chamber that exists primarily in local imagination. (Since no one knows anything about the tunnels, the “legend” of the burial chamber is local fiction.) They put together an all-male and all-white team composed of blue collar workers and fringe author Hugh Newman from Ancient Aliens, in a scene that is a pretty much shot-by-shot remake of the parallel part of the Curse of Oak Island pilot. When the men visit the site, the fatter members almost don’t fit into the structure supposedly meant for giants. What a weird choice to start a series about giants—a miniature tunnel system! This is where I got bored, just like I did with Oak Island. The show chooses to focus on the group of middle aged white guys bonding over big machines and physical labor, and I have neither the time nor the interest to want to make an emotional investment in what is, more or less, a creationist version of Deadliest Catch or Bering Sea Gold or any of the other pseudo-band-of-brothers masculine reality soap operas. The men falsely assert that dry stone techniques are not colonial, and this is completely false, as the stone mason brothers must know. We went through this problem with Scott Wolter over on America Unearthed when he mistook a colonial spring house for a Freemasons’ bathhouse. Stacking stones is a typical Scots-Irish technique, and one that was used as recently as—well, the stones that make up the wall in my front yard, for one. It hasn’t changed in thousands of years, and plenty of colonial examples exist. I don’t know how old the site is, but my concern is whether it has anything to do with giants as they assert. There’s nothing “gigantic” about it at all. Their excavation ends when they find a cave-in at the end of the tunnel. Anyway, the men also go to visit an inscribed stone with a clearly colonial-era or later inscription, to judge by the style of the lettering. I have no idea what the coded inscription says, but it isn’t all that old. Here’s my best effort at transcribing it: SΘ O AD 1792 ABUANhAMPhHWV BP Z The men decide that they will start boring into the ground where they found a seam in the stone construction of the Goshen tunnel in the hopes of finding another tunnel unknown to history perpendicular to the known tunnel. Meanwhile Jim calls in David S. Brody to decipher the inscription on the nearby rock. Even though in Jim’s transcription the inscription clearly says “AD 1792,” Brody immediately relates the rock to one of Scott Wolter’s bugaboos, a fake ancient inscription he and Brody found at Panther Mountain in the Catskills in 2009 and reported on in Akhenaten to the Founding Fathers, and the men talk about it as though it were an ancient code. That rock, incidentally, was found near the home of hoaxers who were trying to convince Wolter that they had found a document with a first person account of the burial of the Templar treasure at Panther Mountain. Even Wolter wasn’t credulous enough to believe that, but apparently Brody is! Sadly, the shows on History/H2 are cross-pollinating. On this program, first we had Hugh Newman from Ancient Aliens, and now David Brody presenting some of America Unearthed host Scott Wolter’s less credible evidence. It’s like the Marvel Cinematic Universe: ALIEN MAN, GIANT BROTHERS, and TEMPLAR AVENGER—assemble! Meanwhile, back to the Vieiras. They dug a hole and ran into some stone and sand. But they didn’t conduct an actual excavation, so mostly they just disturbed an archaeological site without producing much evidence of anything. They conclude that having dug some sand out of the hole, the sand must have been used to preserve a body, possibly that of a giant. Unfortunately, the show simply drops dead here and offers nothing by way of a conclusion. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt that they found a tunnel, that the tunnel leads to a chamber, and that this chamber was used for burial. Even granting them all of this proves nothing about giants, and this entire hour was a huge waste of time unless you are the kind of viewer looking to take your entertainment from some paint-by-numbers reality show tropes and enjoy watching middle aged white men express their brotherly love for one another through shared activities. The danger of Search for the Lost Giants is that it focuses on skeletons and burials, and in showing the Vieiras digging and drilling for these bones, it may encourage imitators to disturb archaeological sites in search of phantom giants. Not only is this illegal, it is also destructive and threatens the actual archaeological heritage of America. Since Search for the Lost Giants seems to be a somewhat threadbare copy of Curse of Oak Island, I can’t imagine that there will be enough content to make it worth reviewing individual episodes of the show. Besides, Bill Vieira might find that to be more bullying of his little brother.
74 Comments
Alaric
11/5/2014 05:51:26 am
Why on Earth would the existence of an ancient race of giants, if it could be scientifically proven, in any way threaten the idea of evolution? I mean, honestly, I don't expect these people to be rational, but that really doesn't make any sense at all. I suppose it has to do with the idea many creationists seem to have that the theory of evolution was deliberately crafted to attack the Bible; since the Bible says there were giants, presumably evolution would somehow need there to be no giants. Even from that point of view (and it is, frankly, an extremely wrongheaded point of view), though, it doesn't make much sense.
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Marius
11/5/2014 06:50:23 am
Indeed. If evolution can explain the T-Rex, why couldn't it handle tall people?
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cosmic drifter
6/18/2018 05:20:40 pm
if the giants existed in the same earth age as the dinosaurs the giants would have been torn limb from limb no mater how big they were
RLewis
11/5/2014 07:28:52 am
I believe the rationale is : If Giants = True, then Bible Giants = True, then Bible = True, then All Scientific, Biological, Anthropological evidence = False
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PalaceGuard
11/9/2014 04:47:56 pm
The Bible also mentions virgins. Good luck finding one of those in this country.
EP
11/9/2014 06:02:10 pm
At least a few of the posters on this blog have got to be be virgins, no? :) 12/5/2014 06:53:21 am
Alaric,
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nomuse
9/11/2016 01:16:20 pm
Fractally wrong.
Kevin schlosser
12/9/2014 02:00:24 pm
Why would the tunnels be so small if there were Giants buried in the tomb their?
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Matt Mc
11/5/2014 07:01:33 am
I thought the show was horrible at least with Oak Island, at least on the Oak Island show I find the two brothers likable which is not the case with the Giants show.
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11/5/2014 09:18:54 am
As you know, I didn't like "Oak Island" very much, but I agree that the men on that show were much more enjoyable to watch. I'd take "Oak Island" over "Giants" any day.
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Matt Mc
11/5/2014 11:46:48 am
Oh I agree Oak Island leaves a lot to be desired,I do find it watchable. I also like the fact that there is a underlying sense of skepticism in the show. One brother believes one basically is just helping his brother out.
Shane Sullivan
11/5/2014 07:31:59 am
You're a brave man, Jason Colavito. I made it to the (scripted) "You gawta tap the breaks, or people ah gonna think ya whacked!" scene, and turned it off.
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RLewis
11/5/2014 07:35:32 am
My favorite part was when they described the qualifications of the assembled Dream Team of drinking buddies (e.g "if you're lost in the woods for three weeks, he's the guy you want to be with").
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Not the Comte de Saint Germain
11/5/2014 07:53:14 am
I've never seen any of these shows, but they all sound really boring. I can't believe Jason can stomach watching them as much as he does.
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11/5/2014 09:20:40 am
I have enormous tolerance for boredom, but I'll admit that this one taxed even my iron patience. I can't imagine purposely watching this dull show ever again, though I may force myself to check in on the season finale.
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EP
11/5/2014 10:12:06 am
"if you're lost in the woods for three weeks, he's the guy you want to be with"
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MKeel
11/10/2014 07:51:28 am
My problem with Vieira from the beginning is his one plus one equals giants style makes no sense. It's entirely possible many of these stone structures in the woods of New England and New York were not colonial in nature. They could have been built by Native Americans, especially if there was a migration of the Hopewell culture of the Ohio River Valley that we know for certain existed. Just like the most plentiful - but also smallest and least impressive - pyramids from the ancient world are in Sudan as the ancient Sudanese copied their more successful neighbors to the north.
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I want to guess on that 'code' at the cave wall, and that it is merely miner's marks explaining what was behind the rocks, nothing more. Or is was put there by some teenagers decades later, possibly initials of local kids. The later is more likely. Graffiti of this type is everywhere in suburb and urban cities.
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Clete
11/5/2014 10:11:13 am
I believe in Giants, but not the ones the Viera brothers are looking for. The Giants I believe in are in San Francisco and are named Buster, Madison, Pablo, etc.
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EP
11/5/2014 10:27:47 am
Do they ever come in unto the daughters of men?
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Jolly Green You-know who
11/5/2014 02:03:38 pm
Every chance we get!
Dave
11/5/2014 11:51:43 am
Loved reading the Joseph Jefferson story....I live about 200 yards from the site of President Cleveland's home in a neighborhood now know as Gray Gables. Never heard the Giant story before....maybe they carved the Mysterious Bourne Stone found not to far from the Cleveland Estate!
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G-Das
11/5/2014 12:00:14 pm
As a student of comparative religions, the birth and growth of religious cultures and the evolution of humans (and all beings) on this planet, I am open to new ideas and thoughts when supported by facts. I find myself drawn into these shows by weeks of promos with quick edits that promise us revelations never before known. I do some internet research on the subject if I have not read about it before (and often even if I have), which always draws me in further. In this electronic instant media age, though, if something amazing had been discovered do you really think we'd have to wait weeks or months until the History channel showed it to us? Do you really believe nothing would have been leaked by now? Nothing would be available on the internet regarding it until the History channel revealed it?
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Jack
12/10/2014 11:07:30 am
My name is jack and I know for a fact that giants did not exsist. Trust me I sold my cow for a few beans that turned out to be magic and when I climbed up the beanstalk I didn't see any giants. All this show is is a giant pain in my a#%!!
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Scott Hamilton
11/5/2014 01:58:17 pm
The added sound effects were killing me.
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Dave Lewis
11/5/2014 02:09:22 pm
Please excuse me for hijacking the thread but does anyone like Simon R. Green's Nightside novels?
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Duke of URL
11/6/2014 02:06:53 am
I love them and have them all; in fact, I'm pretty sure I have every book Green's written. He is a marvelously creative author.
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Drew
11/6/2014 03:00:35 am
I do, but they are library borrows, not buys for me. Green gets trapped in these constant turns of phrase (red in tooth and claw? take a drink!) and the plots get pretty repetitive (Big Bad is Bad! Hero is Good! Hero Sidekick is Terrifying! Hero Uses Special Power to Save the Day!) that I honestly can barely tell the series apart, let alone the individual stories (Hint: If Hero's Girlfriend has big boobs and everyone is scared of her because of her weapons, it's Nightside. If she has big boobs and everyone is scared of her witch powers, it's Secret Histories).
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Dave Lewis
11/6/2014 01:10:48 pm
I working my way through the nightside novels and have started alternating them with the Laundry series. I'm not a sophisticated reader so they are enjoyable for me. I'll start on the Secret History series after I finish Nightside. Any other suggestions will be appreciated. Of course the Cthulhu mythos is my favorite!
Duke of URL
11/7/2014 02:30:56 am
>Drew: Now, that's where you and I diverge - I rather enjoy recurring themes and catchphrases. I don't think Green overuses them; for me, he repeats just enough to make the whole series feel like one immense tale.
Alex Chionetti
11/5/2014 03:57:20 pm
Two years ago I presented to 'The History Channel"a project for series u untitled 'Quest for Giants" based in a longtime serious research on the subject,nationally and internationally speaking.
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FrankenNewYork
11/6/2014 12:52:44 am
The newspaper accounts the brothers cite seem more thorough than the research they show on the program. I watched the first section of the show again to double check and it doesn't look to me that the radar technician said he found a slab before being prompted by the brothers. He says there is some sort of flat anomaly in the soil, he doesn't even mention stone, only after the brothers ask if it could be a slab does the tech concede it's possible it could be. And things go quickly from we found a slab, to graphics showing an underground vault,
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EP
11/6/2014 02:12:09 am
And may I remind everyone how much more FUCKIN' METAL the giants were in 1880s newspapers (at least according to 1990s tabloids):
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Duke of URL
11/6/2014 01:58:23 am
Vieira then attacked me ... that I am “on a crusade to save the world from bad science,”
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EP
11/6/2014 02:05:35 am
Besides, why would Vieira care? After all, what he does arguably doesn't even qualify as *bad* science...
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Dr. Robert John Nicholas
11/6/2014 08:15:43 pm
I am an Oxford educated researcher and I have been involved in research for many years and write about creativity in applied fields. The academic part of me is amused by much reasoning I see in the world and yet when I step out of that world I find it refreshing to see people who are engaging their mind in the pursuit of testing hypotheses and finding passion in life. I think that truly great research often takes wrong paths but that is part of the education and don't we need more investigators in this world? Can't we all agree on that?
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EP
11/7/2014 03:17:09 am
Is anyone disputing that here?
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Dave Lewis
11/7/2014 12:51:21 pm
I have a big problem with uneducated people who claim they are researching Bigfoot or UFOs or other things. For me the word research, when used by a non-academic person, has come to mean "I'm a (UFO/Bigfoot/blacked eyed children) true believer who thinks I know more than you."
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EP
11/7/2014 01:14:40 pm
Whatever happened to black eyed children? I was kinda hoping they'd become the next Slender Man...
James
11/11/2014 07:06:46 pm
What does "uneducated" mean? What is your definition of an "education"? What bar would you set for people who want to "research" something?
EP
11/12/2014 05:05:03 am
Whatever bar one might reasonably set, Dave's point is that the people he's talking about don't reach it.
Jason Allard
11/6/2014 08:19:26 pm
I just sat through this show, facepaliming all the way.
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Justin TM
11/9/2014 04:44:36 pm
SΘ O
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Justin TM
11/9/2014 05:36:13 pm
the name Abraham but spelled Aburnham, seems plausible. 1792 didnt produce the most literate americans. my family emigrated in the early 1700s and the family name was spelled differently then it is now because of the next generation filling out census records wrong by sounding out names when spelling rather than being educated enough to spell it correctly. of course, back in the 1700s, there were bigger concerns on hand like war and independence rather than spelling. all in all, it's colonial tunnels and carvings.
scott
11/23/2014 03:02:04 pm
SΘ
scott
11/23/2014 03:05:44 pm
Its better to see the way the writing and symbols appear on the stone by viewing at the beginning of the page, written by the blogger.
toby
11/9/2014 05:06:49 pm
Sounds like ur like the rest of main stream and believe what our government tells us. Just like the mayan pyramids in goergia that no one is exgavating but the govt has blocked off. If someone doesnt try to excavate or find out the truths of these sites, the government certainly won't. Instead of being a critic of people, u may wanna get out there and see if these things r going on. If no one would have kept digging, we wouldnt have the sphinx. I recommend u watch teen mom 2. That is more ur level!
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Only Me
11/9/2014 05:16:18 pm
You are clearly not a careful viewer and you clearly value your opinion way more than it is actually worth.
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bigdumbgod
11/9/2014 06:19:53 pm
Thank you for your informed contribution. That there is indeed an identifiable audience for the aforementioned brothers' show is now affirmed. Now dig, that you may attract cameras and the bored curious to your own 15 minutes of infamy! Good luck on your quest (but you probably need to get out of the bunker first).
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Emperor Tercus
11/11/2014 03:27:41 pm
Though I'm sure it would be really exhausting and time consuming, I wish that you (Jason Colavito) would continue to review this show. Your reviews are so thorough and I always enjoy reading them.
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Casey
11/12/2014 01:49:50 pm
I'm curious as to why we never find out what the brothers discover after they drilled. Obviously had they found anything of importance they would have included it in the episode. Furthermore, I too have a difficult time understanding why they didn't drill deeper for further exploration with the camera. Or as was previously mentioned. Why not simply use a laparoscopic camera to explore the "zipper".
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AMM
11/14/2014 09:10:04 pm
Jim Viera is to giants what Giorgio Tsoukalos is to aliens. (Please note: that is not a compliment)
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Ratbark
11/18/2014 05:06:12 pm
I thought they convinced a UMass archeologist to dig? With the pure Quartz sand and the smoke test?
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TruthorTrash
11/23/2014 06:26:08 am
Interesting to read all the comments. First I'm tired of not ever getting any results to any of the shows on finding the giants, WTF.
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Boson
11/27/2014 08:27:55 pm
If you don't like the show then watch something else. It's just that simple people. The first thing that is very clear about the series is what they are searching for, they are not experts and the scope of their limitations. I think people need to keep an open mind. I don't believe they are spreading lies about the scientific community. Pursuing an unpopular subject can damage your credibility in any industry. At the end of the day we can't deny that larger than normal human remains exist. That doesn't automatically equate to a race of giants, but can we really blame people for being curious? Scientific theories are not absolute and over time, as we have learned more theories change. Discovery is a process. While you point out the inaccuracies of their search, at least they are making the effort to search for answers. I don't believe every conspiracy theory, but I do believe there is information that is not available to the general population.
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Ragnar
11/30/2014 03:14:27 am
I'm on the fence about giants. But, if the alleged "giant" bones that have been sent to the Smithsonian over the years are nothing more then either misidentified mastodons or large men, then why does the Smithsonian continue to deny ever receiving bones?
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Duke of URL
11/30/2014 04:20:32 am
You're falling into the lunatic conspiracists' trap - the Smithsonian does NOT "deny every receiving bones" - in fact, they acknowledge donations of such (which they often receive) with polite letters of thanks. It's simply that they have /never/ received or even seen bones of the magical mystical nephilim/whatever giants that the nuts think are all over the place.
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Grey St. Rodman
12/6/2014 04:02:09 am
I found the Dr Robbins lead interesting. If those remains existed from the railroad construction of 1876 as the town documents showed, than that was a real lead that shouldn't be dismissed. Where are those remains?
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Thinker
12/9/2014 03:52:17 pm
What I find more interesting than all the naysayers on this site, is that the author appears to not believe in anything that is outside the narrow realm of human understanding as he has been taught to believe. If you look through history, the one's who looked outside the box are the ones who advanced the human race.
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Andy White
12/14/2014 05:11:12 am
The Deerfield skeleton that started Vieira on his quest did not have "double rows of teeth." Read this: http://www.andywhiteanthropology.com/blog/words-matter-double-rows-of-teeth-jim-vieira-and-the-deerfield-skeleton
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Who do you think I am
1/3/2015 10:06:59 am
I don't know what to think anymore. Are the giants creationists lore, is evolution correct, is the author of this sight just upset, is the history channel just a con-artist to the gullible American public. Is the government full of lies, are Denisovans ancestors to giants, should I care about any of this, is the history channel just making a excuse to get people to watch their commercials and spin offs of shows, are they ever going to pull up any actual facts of or proof or conclusions or summaries or any scientific communities, Are the characters just poorly made copies, is their any logic or rational to the show, did it make sense for me to watch the whole season 1 just to see if the trend ever changed. Are amateurs better at somethings then professionals, is TED talks legit, should they have other races on the show; maybe talk to actual native Americans, is it colonial, does the plot get worse or better, Do giants exist in some form or another, Is this good or bad, our evolutionists against creationists, is their any difference between a complement and a insult as much as theirs a difference between east and west, should their be more Kryptozoologists;Anthropologists;Paleontologists;and experienced personnel on the job, should someone else be discussing this besides anyone who clicked on the link.
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Grey St. Rodman
1/4/2015 12:26:37 am
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Richard
1/5/2015 04:41:23 pm
I just watched this search for giants show for the first time (was tired of reading and needed a break). I had the same thought as Colavito, if giants constructed this underground tunnel system then why is it so small? Obviously some group put a lot of hard work into this tunnel and it'd be interesting to know why. I didn't hear any references to the bible but apparently Colavito picked some up. He obviously subscribes to the theory of evolution which is widely accepted but cannot be scientifically proven and disdains any idea that might be related to biblical records. This sort of prejudice reveals a closed mind and so with two polarized groups (creationists vs evolutionists) with their own agendas assessing the scant evidence I doubt we'll see any resolution.
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skeptichaggis
3/24/2015 07:00:53 am
I saw the mysterious origins of man and i laughed in contempt,then I saw ancient aliens and I shook my head in disgust, then I saw america unearthed and I wept for humanity, then I saw this abomanation and rammed nails in through my eardrums and poured bleach in my eyes.
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gswifty
3/24/2015 07:17:52 am
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al macias
5/16/2015 08:44:45 am
This show is a joke too! I saw a program on men who are taller than normal. They can barely move. There bones are so fragile. The same would happen to a gorilla, lets say if a King Kong existed it would be so massive and heavy that it would not be able to support its weight!
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Robert Stewart
7/10/2015 03:46:03 am
This show was just plain silly. I'd love it if anything was real on any of these shows. Like ancient aliens the general theme is "I can't explain it therefor Space Men!" It's rather ludicrous. Sadly, i know too many who think this stuff is real. Sigh! Oh well.
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Clifford Jones
8/2/2015 06:15:30 am
The obvious question is, if you wanted to bury a giant, why not just bury it?
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paul wilson
9/8/2015 06:17:52 pm
Why does the reviewer keep criticizing "white guys?" Why not attack "black guys, brown guys, yellow guys...?" Typical liberal fruitcake, the kind that hid the history of giants in the first place.
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Steve Lueke
9/9/2015 03:34:32 am
Money. Ego. I commend the Viera brothers on putting together shit and getting paid. They have thrust themselves now into doing ego/profit building presentations or appearances.I for one could not put my head on my pillow at night and fall asleep if I presented such shit.
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Jane Harring
11/21/2015 10:36:02 pm
I have read as much as I could stand of all the prattle one could give who does not want to agree with someone else's stand on a subject matter. The point I want to make about the entire conversation is that here in Wisconsin, we know what was found, but unfortunately someone trusted the Smithsonian to take care of things scientifically - alas they were politicized and like good lemmings of politics they truly did take care of things. Are you a lemming too? Sounds like it.
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royh
12/29/2016 02:08:55 pm
"Vieira then attacked me on his Facebook page devoted to giants, claiming that I am ... 'on a crusade to save the world from bad science,' "
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Bob
9/2/2023 04:47:39 pm
Didn't even get to the end. It was obvious that all they were going to show for their work is that "tooth."
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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