15 replies to this topic

[PHANTOM MONK]

At Sayre brial mounds containing the skeletons of several humanoid creatures seven feet tall, with horns on their heads, were discovered there in the 1880s. Estimates place their burial at around 1200 A.D. The bones were found by a Pennsylvania state historian, a Presbyterian dignitary, and two professors who were investigating the burial mounds. Some skeletons were sent to the American Investigating Museum, a forensic institution in Philadelphia.

[Haunting Research]

Sounds way out there but I would look forward to seeing the results of the DNA testing!

[Caniswalensis]

I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

The bones disappeared after being sent to the museum.

I love stories like this, but given the date of the find, and the disappearance of all the evidence, I gotta call hoax on this one.

[PHANTOM MONK]

At Sayre brial mounds containing the skeletons of several humanoid creatures seven feet tall, with horns on their heads, were discovered there in the 1880s. Estimates place their burial at around 1200 A.D. The bones were found by a Pennsylvania state historian, a Presbyterian dignitary, and two professors who were investigating the burial mounds. Some skeletons were sent to the American Investigating Museum, a forensic institution in Philadelphia.

Seriously, I did not make it up. I can give source if anybody want to know.

[Caniswalensis]

At Sayre brial mounds containing the skeletons of several humanoid creatures seven feet tall, with horns on their heads, were discovered there in the 1880s. Estimates place their burial at around 1200 A.D. The bones were found by a Pennsylvania state historian, a Presbyterian dignitary, and two professors who were investigating the burial mounds. Some skeletons were sent to the American Investigating Museum, a forensic institution in Philadelphia.

Seriously, I did not make it up. I can give source if anybody want to know.

I absolutely did not mean that you were the hoaxer here! Sorry if I was not clear enough on that! I am glad you posted this.

What I meant was that newspapers of the day sometimes made up facts or even whole stories just to fill space, or for fun.

Another problem is that no articles are known to exist that date back to 1880. I believe the earliest known appearance of this story in print is 1916 or something like that. There is ample oppurtunity for inaccuracies and falsehoods to creep in to the story, assuming it ever happened at all. Tall tales usually improve with age.

Yet another possible giveaway is the disappearance of the bones. It is highly indicative of a hoax. People are sometimes innitially taken in, and then discover that they were fooled and decide to destroy the evidence rather than be embarrassed by their mistake. Also the hoaxer may decide that he/she may be in trouble if discovered and so they destroy the evidence to protect themselves from punishment.

The biggest nail in the coffin of this story is that there is not now, nor at any time in the past an "American Investigating Museum" in Philly. It's a made-up name. Why should we believe a story about giants, when such a mundane detail as the name of a museum is demonstrably fictitious?

Regards, Canis

[Morraeon]

Mmm, as soon as I read the bit about the bones conveniently disappearing, my hoax-ometer started to tick...

[PHANTOM MONK]

Sounds way out there but I would look forward to seeing the results of the DNA testing!

Gotta trust me. I didn't make it up.

[MoonChild]

Sounds way out there but I would look forward to seeing the results of the DNA testing!

Gotta trust me. I didn't make it up.

hmmm upon detailed googling I find that this is just a rumor floating around. No fact in this news.

Edited by MoonChild, 30 July 2009 - 10:33 PM.

[PHANTOM MONK]

Sounds way out there but I would look forward to seeing the results of the DNA testing!

Gotta trust me. I didn't make it up.

hmmm upon detailed googling I find that this is just a rumor floating around. No fact in this news.

I just report them but I got my doubts too.

[earth_spirit]

This sounds a lot like a spin off of the Cardiff Giant hoax back in 1869:

The Cardiff Giant

[Caniswalensis]

The Cardiff Giant has always been my favorite hoax!

[earth_spirit]

Giants have been a part of folklore since the beginning of recorded history. One of the earliest recorded references comes from the Bible:

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6:4

Unfortunately, everything I've found online about the Sayre burial mounds is just a rehash of the original Web posting.

I've been unable to find anything about the so-called "American Investigating Museum" unrelated to this topic, but one of the investigators mentioned, W. K. Moorehead (1866-1939), was a prominent archeologist of the early 20th century and was in fact a faculty member at Phillips Academy. However, I've not been able to find what year the skeletons were discovered at the Sayre burial mounds, only that they were discovered "in the 1880s".

If they were discovered in the 1880s, Moorehead would have been between 13 and 23 years of age during this time period. Since he didn't graduate from Dension University in Granville, OH, until 1886, he probably would have been too young to be a faculty member at Phillips Academy during this time, though he could have been doing postgraduate studies. The question still remains as to why the school would have sent a student on an investigation of such importance. Most of his published works I found from his tenure at Phillips Academy were from the 1920's and 1930's. I suspect that someone conveniently used his name to add credibility to the story without checking the facts - IMHO, of course!

Phillips Academy still exists in Andover, MA as a coed boarding high school and uses the the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology where Moorehead was curator as an educational resource for teaching archaeology.

So far, I've been unable to find any legitimate biography connecting Warren King Moorehead to the discovery of giant horned skeletons in Sayre, PA.

For those that are interested, here's a link to other reported cases of giants in the U.S:

Giants

Edited by earth_spirit, 05 August 2009 - 01:09 PM.

[PHANTOM MONK]

Just because I cite something doesn't mean, imply, etc. that I believe it to be about something from flesh and blood. The source is valid and the info. is usually pretty accurate. I believe something was found, how accurate the remains being described were remains to be eplored further, if there is anywwhere else to go.

[earth_spirit]

Not to worry, PM! This is a very interesting topic, and I uncovered a treasure trove of information about other giant findings throughout the US and the world while researching it. If you can cite any additional sources, please do, as I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in knowing more about it.

BTW - Alanson "A.B." Skinner, the other archeologist listed as being part of the Sayre burial mound investigation team, was born in 1884, so at the latest he would have been five years old if the bones were uncovered in the 1880s. So why the disparity? It may be because the event in question didn't happen in the 1880s, but the year 1916 when both Moorehead and Skinner were established archeologists

According to Skinner, the stories of the horned skull giant started after an excavation near Athens, PA uncovered an Indian burial ground containing the skeletons of 57 individuals. Of the 57 skeletons, one of them was covered in a pile of deer antlers. This, he believed, was the basis of the rumor that that the team had uncovered a skull with horns on it.

Read Skinner's explanation here:

Skinner's Explanation of the Horned Skull

Scroll down to the lower right hand of the page to read Skinner's response.

Edited by earth_spirit, 02 August 2009 - 05:00 PM.

[Johnny Eck]

Great research, earth! I was curious and started some research of my own on this topic. Yea your right about the same story being passed around so much that it starts to become fact because it's been repeated so many times and nobody bothers to check to see if it's true or not. Thanks for posting the links