I found that Bryan Hilliard’s article Lovelock Cave: A Tale of Giants or A Giant Tale of Fiction? is, due to its vague nature, typical of the sort that could go either way: those suffering from what I term Gigorexia Nervosa will yell, “Conspiracy! Cover up!” and the skeptics will yell, “See? Nothing to see here!”—with the apathetic likely saying, “Much ado about nothing, or so it seems.”
I don’t refer to “its vague nature” as a manner whereby to fault Hilliard’s writing but since what we have to go by are some assertions and some artifacts—such is the nature of piecing together history: however ancient of relatively modern.
He notes that the Paiutes Natives “have an oral tradition” that “was written down in 1882 by Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, daughter of a Paiute Indian chief,” but we know not the timespan between the commencement of the tradition and the recording of it.
The tradition was of “early”—but early as per what timespan is something we’re not told—“white settlers of the area about a race of red-haired, white giants or ‘barbarians’…These ‘giants’ were described,” apparently “described” in 1882 via writing, “as being vicious, unfriendly and cannibalistic.”
So the tale goes, “the Paiutes speak of a great battle that took place which led to their extermination at site known today as Lovelock Cave…The Paiutes demanded their enemy come out of the cave and fight, but the giants refused.” This may be bravado but, let’s go with it.
Perhaps conveniently, “Over time, the entrance to the cave would collapse…cut off from human contact.”
Bryan Hilliard notes, “During the early part of the 20th century, archaeologists found thousands of artifacts inside this cave” and “two miners, James Hart and David Pugh, realized the value of guano as an ingredient of gunpowder, and created a company to start digging it out in 1911.”
The “first archeological dig of Lovelock” was “in 1912…A second dig took place in 1924…a report…was published in 1929” and overall, “Approximately 10,000 archaeological specimens were uncovered” including, “60 average-height mummies” and “a sandal over 15 inches (38 cm).’
Also, “During the initial excavations, there were reports,” by whom and where is not stated, “of mummified remains being found of two red-haired giants. One was a female 6.5-feet (1.98 m) tall and the other a male over 8-feet (2.44 m) tall. However, no such evidence remains.”
Bryan Hilliard notes, “In Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins book, Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, she does not mention giants, but does refer to so-called barbarians,” the book was published in 1883.
He notes that “radiocarbon dating…found…a human femur dating to 1450 BC, human muscle tissue dating 1420 BC” but such dating methods come with a lot of baggage and problems.
He also notes, “In an article published in the Nevada Review-Miner in 1931, in February and June of that same year, it was reported that two very large skeletons were found in the Humboldt dry lake bed near Lovelock, Nevada. One of the Lovelock skeletons was reported to have measured 8.5-feet (2,59 m) tall…The other was supposedly nearly 10-feet (3.05 m) long,” the phrase, “supposedly nearly” are two qualifying terms back-to-back: it “supposedly” was and was “nearly.”
He adds, “A study done at the University of Nevada indicates the ‘giants’ were about six feet (1.83 m) tall, and not up to 8 feet (2.44 m) tall as had been claimed.”
Also, “Duck decoys found in Lovelock Cave from circa 400 BC to 100 AD” and “basketry,” radiocarbonlly dated, “back to 1218 BC.”
Bryan Hilliard notes, “Skeptics claim that chemical staining by earth after burial was a likely reason why mummified remains have red hair instead of black, like most Indians in the area”—and such phenomena could also affect radiocarbon dating.
He points out, “many of the original artifacts found at Lovelock (but no giants) can be viewed at a small natural history museum located in Winnemucca, Nevada” but considering that the skeletons range from “average-height,” whatever that subjectively was, 6 ft. to “supposedly nearly 10-feet” but “not up to 8 feet” I know not to what, to whom, he’s referring to as “giants.”
Items in the cave (supposedly) date-range from 1450 BC-100 AD but I wonder if we can plug the Norse/Vikings into this picture since they explored North America in circa 1000 AD—who would comfortably be described as White, red-haired giants compared to what we can gather about the average Native size.
I say “I wonder if we can plug” since we have some gaps in which to do so: we have an undated “oral tradition,” Vikings in North America starting in 1000 AD, and a writing of the tradition 1882, which his plenty of time for Vikings—by any other name—to find their way into the lore.
So, there you have it: a little for everyone: from Gigorexia Nervosa sufferers who refer to any absence of evidence as actually existing evidence that was covered up to skeptics who may, for whatever odd reasons, deny that taller than the subjective average people with different than average hair color existed, the apathetic being apathetic—and me playing monkey in the middle: having written on such issues and always seeming to encounter the same vague stuff.
Particularly, see chapters, “Grading the Giant Human Skeleton Chart” and “Giant Skeletons Reported in Old Newspapers Accounts” and “Did the Smithsonian Admit to Destroying Thousands of Giant Human Skeletons in Early 1900’s?,” etc. in my book Nephilim and Giants: Believe It or Not! Ancient and Neo-Theo-Sci-Fi Tall Tales.
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