During an archaeological excavation in Sayre, Bradford County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s, a number of human skulls were unearthed.
It has been many years since the first gigantism-related ancient skeleton was discovered close to Rome. However, others online say that similar skeletons were also found in the United States.
“During an archaeological excavation in Sayre, Bradford County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s, a number of human skulls were unearthed,” the Facebook post reads.
“These skeletons were anatomically correct, except for the anomaly of their projections – two distinct ‘horns’ two inches above the eyebrow, and the fact that their average height in life would have been around seven feet tall.”
The post asserts the bones were sent to the “American Investigating Museum” in Philadelphia, where they were stolen – “never to be seen again.”
However, there is no proof to back up the assertion.
There are certain people who do grow to remarkable sizes, and ancient skeletons of gigantism sufferers have been discovered.
According to Erin Kimmerle, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Central Florida, it is a genetic illness that develops when people undergo aberrant linear development as a result of the overactive action of insulin-like growth factors.
“Basically you keep growing even though the growth plates are fused,” Kimmerle said in an email.
“The frequency is believed to be about 8 cases per 1 million people. I am not sure if it was more frequent in the past because earlier testing and treatments are possible now.”
But according to Kimmerly, the horned skull depicted in the Facebook post is a fake. USA TODAY could find no reliable scientific or news accounts of such a discovery.
The legend of Pennsylvania’s horned giants, according to researchers at the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, is a collection of tales that over time took on a life of their own.
There were various versions of the narrative in newspaper stories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Peabody researchers attributed the references of giant skeletons to misidentified extinct animal species and to written records that exaggerated the height of individuals who were tall for the time.
