Mythology is riddled with mentions of Giants. Greek, Norse, and Celtic legends all contain references to men larger than normal. The Bible, in Genesis, says "There were Giants in those days." Just how much truth is there in these varied assertions? Fifty years ago the vast body of scientific opinion would have ridiculed the whole idea, to-day, even the most conservative of scientists will admit that there is a grain of truth in these, previously derided, "fairy tales." In 1944 the American Ethnological Society heard a paper by Dr. Weidenreich which certainly struck a blow for the colossus of tradition.
Fossils and fragmentary skeletons found in both China and Java indicate that some, at least, of our predecessors were considerably larger than modern man. The first discoveries were made some 50 years ago, in Java, by a Dutchman, Dr. Dubois. Amongst many other fossils, buried by volcanic eruptions, he found the top of a skull, a femur, and a piece of jaw bone. From these remains Dr. Dubois deduced that the creature, of which they had once formed part, was the "missing link" of Darwin. He named the species Pithecanthropus erectus, and estimated that it lived in the late Pliocene era. Modern opinion however, doesn't credit the creature with quite the antiquity assigned it by Dr. Dubois, and placed it in the early Pleistocene period.
Pithecanthropus itself was not much larger than a normal man (judging by the size of the pieces found), but a later discovery by Dr. von Koenigswald of the Netherlands Indies Geological Survey, put a new complexion on the matter. A jaw was found corresponding to that of Pithecanthropus erectus in every respect, except that of size. This fossil jaw was larger than any previously known human jaw. At first it was thought that this super Pithecanthropus was the male of the species, but later it was dignified with a name of its own, and called Pithecanthropus robustus.
Not long after the discovery of the "robustus" jaw another, even larger jaw was found, again in Java. This new early man was named Meganthropus palaeojavanicus, and must have been about the size of a big male gorilla. Switching the scene of his activities to China, Dr. Koenigswald found, in the shop of a Chinese Apothecary under the name of dragons teeth, some near-human teeth twice the size of the molars of a gorilla. Dr. Goenigswald believed these to be teeth of some huge prehistoric ape, which he named Gigantopithecus. His opinion was, however, challenged by Dr. Weidenreich, who brought evidence to prove that these teeth were in fact, human, and suggested that the name of the monster be changed to Gigantanthropus.
From these discoveries, particularly that of the bi-gorilla sized Gigantanthropus, Dr. Weidenreich deduced that "gigantism and massiveness may have been a general or at least a widespread character of early mankind."
Data entry by Judy Bemis
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