[Updated 22 May 2010]
I was intrigued recently when someone sent me a series of photos purporting to show the skeletons of giant humans excavated at archaeological sites. Here is an example to the right.
However, some quick Internet research revealed that these photos are all doctored. You can see all the photos at About.com — here is an explanation and analysis by urban-legends specialist David Emery: “Giants in Greece — Analysis.”
The photo shown here turns out to be an altered version of a 1993 photo from a dinosaur dig by the University of Chicago — see the original here.
From the detail shown below, you can see that the image of the skull is inconsistent with the rest of the photo — the inserted segment is flat, and one of the workers at the site even appears to have his foot on the skull:
[Update added 22 May 2010] A reader asked about another photo in the series, showing a skeleton with a hole in its temple, lying in a grave. I believe she is referring to this one (linked from the About.com article):
David Emery points out that the skull in this photo show “incongruously bright highlights on the teeth and around the edges of the gaping temple wound.” I’m no expert at analyzing photos, but to me the skeleton in the photo looks like a black-and-white image, whereas the surface of the ground surrounding the hole seems to be in color, which is certainly the case in the image of the two people in the photo.
Here’s a detail showing the suspicious bright highlights on the image of the skull:
All that said, just because somebody was able to fake some photos and a bunch of people believed them only proves that somebody can use image-editing software to fake photos and fool other people. It doesn’t mean that the Bible’s accounts about the Nephilim and other giants aren’t true.
The Bible’s account of the Nephilim appears in Gen. 6:1,2,4 — you can look up Bible texts here. Apparently the Nephilim were hybrids resulting from the marriage of materialized angels and human women. Most likely they were sterile and had no descendants themselves. They would not have survived the global deluge.
The historical account in the Bible does not say how tall the Nephilim were. It does, however, say that the height of the Philistine warrior Goliath was six cubits and a span, which would make him about 2.9 meters or 9 1/2 feet tall — see 1 Sam. 17:4.
This height is not much greater than the heights of some humans recorded in modern times — see this list at Wikipedia of the world’s tallest people.
It’s not impossible that fossil remains of pre-flood humans are among those that have been discovered in the past or that might be found in the future. However, you need to keep in mind that human (and animal) remains normally decompose completely without leaving any trace. Also, the flood waters would probably have been unimaginably violent and destructive and could have covered human remains with hundreds of meters of sediments, making them rare and difficult to recover.
One intriguing archaeological discovery was announced by a group that conducted digs very recently on Mount Ararat, where they uncovered a wooden structure high on the mountain that some believe is the ark of preservation built by the patriarch Noah — see “Group Claims New Noah’s Ark Find on Ararat.”
ARK — 10 May 2010
I just receieved these pictures through an email and I have to admit that I did think they were real, especially considering that Noah’s Ark may have been found. And this picture you have in your article does look photoshopped. But what about the black and white pic? Do you remember seeing that one?(the skull had a hole in the temple). It looked more real than the rest. I hate that someone would lie to people about this because bible stories are touchy subjects for some people.
Thanks
Kellie
Kellie — Thanks for your comment. In response, I’ve added a couple of additional photos related to your question — see above. In his article on About.com, David Emery comments on some of the other photos in this series:
“… a blow-up of image #2 with brightness and contrast enhanced reveals unnaturally dark “shadows” around the skull. The skull in Image #3 is marked by incongruously bright highlights on the teeth and around the edges of the gaping temple wound. And in image #5 the shadows coming off the skeleton fall more or less toward the camera, while the worker’s shadow falls due left, suggesting that elements of two different photos were combined.”
I think the lesson here is that we need to be cautious about how we respond to sensational accounts like this. Photo- and video-editing software allow people to create some pretty convincing fakes, and the Internet allows anybody to become a publisher.
ARK — 22 May 2010
I believe these photos are real. i do need to point out that we have found several bones of prehistoric animals which no one can deny. Also people believed the earth was flat, but we now know better, or that one day we would have airplanes. It does not surprise me that people refuse to believe anything that is connected to the Holy Bible, but if the see or read any news which is distrubering or violent, that they love to hear about or any disgusting thing that is not normal. Jesus had warned the priest of old, in my own words, that he (Jesus) could not explain about heavenly things because they had basically a difficult time believe anything they could not see, so how were they going to believe in Heaven or Jesus being Gods only son? To all those who do not believe in these photos, i have but one question, how do you explain the FACT that it was told about Giants in the Bible? As an example, love, pain, sadness or things we can not see but they are real, just as God is real. Humans do not want to acknowledge anything pretaining to the Bible and God, least they know they will have to make account of their actions and thinking to God himself. I find that to be very sad.
Christina — Thanks for your comment. I think we can be pretty sure that these photos are faked. I think there are two important lessons, though:
1. Just because someone was able to play a prank with image-editing software, that doesn’t disprove the Bible’s account about the Nephilim.
2. We have to be cautious about sensational reports from unverified sources. The Internet makes it very easy for people to perpetrate hoaxes and for others to spread them.
ARK
seems like disproving the bible is no big deal for some.i mean no offence but what knowledge do you really have in scienc?where do you specialise? do you know what the scientists/paleontologists are going through? perhaps if the Creator acknowledges u [that is if you are destined to enter the Rest heb 4] this may convince u.www.the anointed one.net[homepage[quotes by famous evolutionists].u may see and belief but…’blessed are those who have’nt seen but have believd’. i know this does not tally with the xpected comments, but, concerning the skeletons, i think i believe.like i said no offence.the bible is the only original truth we’ve got.
PRAISE to our Creator Yaweh and His Chist Yesua
AMEN TO THIS ANSWER!!
I DON;T THINK THEY ARE FAKE!
misinformation campaigns such as this are intentionally started by anti-biblical ‘scholars’ and by governments worldwide, both of whom have a vested interest in keeping citizens diverted from the truth about our ancient past.
you’ll notice that this “hoax” was NOT perpetuated by a group who wished to prove that giants existed- rather, it was perpetuated and then distributed to prove that people are gullible, as if that has anything to do with the validity of the original claims. similar campaigns have made it difficult for scientists who are interested in ancient accounts regarding many subjects in addition to giants, including the flood, gods and angels, miracles, etc…
eventually, the truth will out.
giants have been excavated in many places throughout the world, and a disinformation campaign of faked photos does nothing to change that. giant remains have been found in texas, on the great lakes, in caves in the grand canyon, and many other places. many of these finds predated the industrial age and the internet, were covered in many publications, and are well documented.
why would our government and academia choose to cover up such finds? probably because many people would take a closer look at the religious accounts and notice the many similarities. once two and two are added together, four truths emerge:
1) ancient civilizations were visited by beings who were not human, interacted with them, and learned from them.
2) ancient civilizations were often tormented by beings (such as giants, who were hybrid humans, and this account is not only found in genesis as well as other religious texts, but is better understood when one reads ‘Enoch,’ a hebrew text that was part of the christian lexicon and accepted by the early church leaders.
3) the religious texts of every major religion in the world predict a catastrophic end to our current civilization.
4) if ancient peoples were visited and assisted by nonhumans, we could be similarly visited and assisted.
the result of our society coming to such conclusions would result in the decreased power of current institutions, including governments. and i think it is easy to see that our ‘scientists’ could not compare to the technological savvy of a being that could move 20 ton blocks several miles and build monolithic structures to absolute perfection.
even the atheist who has faith in science might soon find himself face-to-face with an alien being (or angel). as scientists understand the infinite possibility for life in the cosmos they are beginning to realize that we are not alone.
quantum physics and amazing theories such as string theory have opened up the possibility of many other dimensions, parallel universes (the kingdom of God is here), and travel between them.
i am both excited and somewhat afraid to know that we are coming to the end of an age. even if the worst happens, i will get a bit of pleasure looking at the faces of the unbelieving scientist who have actively exerted so much energy in an effort to disprove God! it will also be nice to see many fellow Christians who ignorantly believe science to be the enemy of God (oh, ye of little faith!) have their eyes opened to the fact that God created science.
-t-
Very well said. God created everything and so that includes science!…so science is not alien to religion.
I believe that giants existed whether anyone believe’s it or not. To do so would be to call God a liar. That is something that people just shouldn’t do. I have seen many differents pictures and articles about giants. Quite a few of them were in the States. And at least one in Australia. Whether he believe’s in Him or not, people shouldn’t scoff at the Bible. It has proven it’s worth thousands of times. In my opinion, anyone who doesn’t believe in God is the most irrational person in the world and needs to follow the overwhelming evidence for its validity.
Only a fool says there is no God. Those are God’s words, not mine.
One thing we all should remember when discussing this. It is a FACT that the Bible has told us that there were Giants in those days, and, even (after) the flood. So for everyone to declare that, all photos, and all accounts, are all fabrications, I think is pushing it too far the other way, and actually away from the truth.
If you believe the Biblical record, then you know there were Giants. Just look at the Skulls in Peru that are elongated WAY BEYOND just wrapping a babies heads. These (creatures) it appears, had huge brains, kind of helps explain the Pryamids doesn’t it?? They were not Aliens, no. Go back to the Biblical record again, and you’ll see that there was Angelic intervention, into the human race. Causing the Flood and then God shortened their days in Gen 6 to 120 years.
When Jesus said, As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the son of man. You have to ask the question, were these creatures and Pharoahs with big heads, messing with DNA?? Just like scientists are doing today?? When you put the two together it suggests reasons why so many strange things have been dug up that scientists can’t, and won’t explain. And it points back to the Biblical record again.
My buddy tried to show me these, and I told him they were’nt real…. it was an ok hoax, though huh.
Whether the picture above is true or false. That doesn’t mean
giants never existed. The truth is that they did and if they hadn’t the
bible would not have said so
Ask yourself
whether to put your faith into the hands of men (scientist) or in the
hands of the true God.
I had to edit this comment quite a bit, as it included much that is not directly relevant to this post about the faked photos of giant skeletons.
A. Roy King welcomes comments from readers — however, he asks that comments be relevant and be kept to a reasonable length. It’s worth mentioning that comments should not include profanity and personal attacks, although that was not the case with this comment.
I believe in the Bible, I don’t really need pictures to prove it. I can see these pistures are not real though.
Has anybody bothered to try and contact the archeologists at the purported dig site ? That would be the way to veryfy this instead of speculating.
There are already scientific evidence and documents on Giant human like skeletons unearthed /found and some sceintists backed this up but there seem always big government cover up on the matter . The giant specimens
were collected and stored somewhere but no big news about them.Why ?
Is this because the strong evidence posed challenge on the arguments that strongly asserts God is a delusion and Bible is a myth .Moreover ,there’s reality of big back up of people in the governments discounting a higher being behind the creations .
Whether the photos are fake or not , it doesn’t mean existence of giants thousands years ago are all mythical . As the Bible said so backed up by findings , then does this not challenge your minds to do futher digging unless we continue to believe all the alienating propagandas .
i think it is a mysterious thing happen.but in a bible there is no giant human or think it is goliath that opponent of david.it is no big deal about it,but it is a question mark that it is a fact or myth,only god knows.
ive done some reaserch…why is it when you look up the location of the dig sites on google earth 3d the sites are blotted out just in that spot.. goverment cover up which you probally work for feeding lies …or told to spread its a hoax..at least i know the truth
Why is it that the comments from the biblical right are all so poorly spelled? Grammar? Is that lost on the biblical right??
No wonder the bible has been misinterpreted so badly – or translated so pervertedly.
Er, I don’t think Bible translators are the people leaving those comments.
I’ve seen the “before” and “after” pics. These images were created for an image editing competition. These guys are real artists with image editing software! Hurray to them for fooling so many people!
Seriously, It is your small minds that sometimes allows us to be fooled. so what you are all saying is that there are a number of people that are all over the world doctoring photos so that we all believe that the oldest text in the bible is true.
I have found over 30 photos on the internet here that I have run though every peice of photo software that adobe ellements, Corel x10 photodelux say are real.
I think the question that shold be asked is “if the oldest Text in the bible is true? what dose that mean for me?”
I am asking that of myself as this was the very issure that made me turn from the bible. Gen 6:4
We have been finding dinosaurs for years now we find Nephlelim, in 85 we found what is credited as the ARK of noah. They are all related.
The Nephlemim were the reason that GOD sent the flood. Angels that bread with the Pritty Ladies of the world.
Before you discreadit my reply as the rambelings of a Christian Nutt, I was brough up one but would not pass as one today. Hence the reason that I am re-looking at my life, I have even though I wanted to just think the same as you all did “HOAX!”
But What if I miss the biggest clue of all time, they are sometimes the size of football pitches, and they have been found everywhere from outback australia to Blackburn in the UK, Greece and even the valley of the kings in Egypt.
It is eaiser to belive that it is all just not true… so is it?
It’s perfectly fine to believe the Bible. But these specific pics were created by students in a photo editing competition. Actual excavation site pictures were used, and altered. They are therefore fake. It’s as simple as that.
I choose to believe that the photo’s are indeed real. I feel that someone does not want to allow these photo’s to be used as proof of the Biblical Giants. This smells of a cover up to me.