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Joe Taylor's Sculpture of a 47" Femur: What's the Story?

1/20/2015

21 Comments

 
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According to Joe Taylor, one of the biggest attractions in the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum is his sculpture of a 47” femur and an accompanying drawing showing the immense size of the individual to whom that femur belonged.   You can find pictures of Taylor and his femur sculpture all over the internet, and a photo of the two together graces the back of his book “Giants Against Evolution.” 

The back cover of the book (shown in the image to the right, I think) reads:

“47 inch Human Femur

In the late 1950s, during road construction in south-east Turkey in the Euphrates Valley, many tombs containing the remains of Giants were uncovered.  At two sites the leg bones were measured to be about 120 cms “47.24 inches”.
"

The Genesis Park website makes a similar statement:

“In the late 1950’s, during road construction in the Euphrates Valley of south-east Turkey, many tombs containing the remains of giants were uncovered. At the sites the leg bones were measured to be 120 cm (47.24 in.).”

A Google search for the phrase “In the late 1950's during road construction in south-east Turkey” returns over 400,000 results, many of which appear to be retelling the story of the femur verbatim.  This is a popular story. It shows up over and over and over again on websites asserting the reality of ancient giant humans. 

All told, this seems to be a pretty important piece of evidence among proponents of giants. 

In this interview, Taylor says that people “see the truth” in his sculpture because it has “a believable story, and it shows them how big these people were and it explains a lot of the things we see in the earth if you account for these giant men being connected to them.”  

Proof that there once existed a human with a 47” femur would, indeed, be remarkable.  There is no question about that.

So one might reasonable ask what is the basis of this remarkable claim?  Surely there is some compelling evidence that explains why this claim is so widely accepted and so vigorously promoted?

Prepare to be disappointed.

The entire basis for this claim appears to be an anonymous letter.  According the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum website, this is what the reported letter said: 

“Dear Christian Friends, I was born and lived in the Middle East from 1938 to 1968.  I was Ain-Tell and Euphrates water works Engineer and was very interested in archaeology and  history and had some very interesting findings, some of which  may sound unbelievable.  I have brought with me a few silex arrow heads, etc., from the very battle-field where King Nebuchadnezzar and Pharo-Necho’s armies fought.  And what about the giants mentioned in Genesis?  In south-east Turkey in the Euphrates Valley and in Homs and at Uran-Zohra, tombs of about four meters long  once existed, but now roads and  other construction work has destroyed the spots.  At two places, when unearthed because of construction work, the leg bones were measured about 120 cms.  It sounds unbelievable.  I have lived with my family at Ain-Tell for more than 14 years at the very spot where King Nebuchadnezzar had his headquarters after the battle of Charcamish, where I dug the graves of kings’ officers and found their skeletons like sponge, and when you touch them they become like white ash, with spears and silex and obsidian tools and ammunition laying by.”

As best I can tell, that’s it.  That’s all of the evidence there is. That’s the story. That’s the documentation shoring up this key piece of evidence: an unsigned letter that anyone, anywhere could have written.

Is there any more to this story?  In this interview it looks like there may be a longer version of the letter, but Taylor tells the same basic story: guy writes a letter to another guy about what he saw, we make a sculpture and glue it to a board. Case closed, evolution refuted. 

In that same interview, Taylor asks “why isn’t it known throughout all the museums in the world . . . why don’t they talk about these giants?” His answer to his own question is that the atheists controlling museums know that proof of giants would be proof that the Bible was true. 

My answer to Taylor's question is a little bit different: because your “evidence” is a sculpture based on a measurement reported in a letter that may have been a complete fabrication.  I wouldn’t even try to get a refund for a gallon of sour milk with evidence as thin as what Taylor presents for this extraordinary claim, let alone try to use it to “refute the theory of evolution.” 

Maybe there is something else to this story but it just hasn't been clearly presented. Please let me know if I missed something. If this is all there is you might as well just say “A guy wrote me a letter that stated evolution is wrong . . . let’s build a museum.”

In both of the interviews I watched, Taylor said the bone was discovered in Egypt rather than Turkey.  One of the ads on the museum website (scroll down on the page) says the bone was “found in Egypt by road construction engineers in the 1960s."  I know that details can be inconvenient, but you would think that we could keep at least two of them straight in this instance since there are really only three: (1) Turkey (or Egypt?), (2) 1950s (or 1960s?), (3) 47” leg bone.  At least we've got the 47" leg bone.

But wait, the
alleged letter actually says "the leg bones were measured about 120 cms." This could be interpreted to mean that both the bones of the leg (tibia and femur) together measured 120 cm. This would still be a tall person, but not a 15' giant.  So I guess we're not even really clear on the 47" femur.

I spent a few minutes trying to find places called “Homs” and “Uran-Zohra” in Turkey and couldn’t.  I’m not ready to claim they don’t exist since I didn't search thoroughly, but it is notable that what popped up right away searching on these words were re-posts of the same verbatim giant account. There is a Homs in western Syria, but (best I can tell) it isn't in the Euphrates drainage basin?  The Euphrates definitely isn't in Egypt. Where was the bone supposedly found? Turkey? Egypt? Syria? Narnia?

I’m not exactly sure what all of this is proof of, but it’s certainly not proof of the existence of giants.

This tale is my new frontrunner in the category of “most bang for the buck” in terms of the ratio of its perceived importance among giant enthusiasts to the strength of evidence presented.  At least the fascination with the Delevan skeletons is based on a newspaper account.  And at least Jim Vieira actually called someone on the phone to discuss the story of Charles Huntington’s “eyewitness” account.  All we have here is an opportunity to buy a $450 cast of a giant femur that was reportedly seen in Egypyt, or Turkey, or somewhere over there somewhere in the 1950s.  Or maybe the 1960s.  By somebody.

I wish I could afford to buy Taylor’s book to add it to my collection: I’m sure it contains many interesting statements.  Its high cost ($39), though, would blow much of my ancient giants research budget for the year.  (I’ve signed up for another month’s subscription to newspapers.com so I can keep working on understanding the North American accounts -- so that’s another $7.95 that I’ve committed and we're barely halfway through January). Maybe I should start asking for donations.  Or maybe I could start selling casts of large femurs. How about someone sends me a letter saying they saw a large femur once in some place – doesn’t really matter where – and I’ll start making casts.  The bigger the better: the going rate seems to be $9.57/inch.


21 Comments
Micah Ewers
1/22/2015 06:17:33 pm

Sounds like the story was based on a water works engineer who was familiar with N.W. Syria and southern Turkey, and lived near Carchemish or Karkamis, where the famous battle between Necho and Nebuchadnezzar was. The Gaziantep Karkamis dam is located here on the Euphrates river , on the border between Turkey and Syria. I am assuming this is approximately the spot of "Ain Tell."

Homs is in central Syria, and "Uran-Zohra" sounds similar to "Urum as Sughra", or "Zahraa", both towns outside of Aleppo in N.W. Syria.

Tombs of 4 meters long would equal to about 13 feet long. Leg bones, if plural... tibia + femur = 120 cm, would be a very tall person. If the legs represented approx. half the standing height of the body, the person may have been 240 cm, or 7-1/2, perhaps even 8 ft. If femur was intended, then that would imply a 14-15foot person -- too big to fit in a 13 foot tomb.

Jim V. and I did track down a report from Iraq of a 7 ft 7 skeleton, and contacted the archaeologist involved with the find. 7 or even 8 feet is believable if the person was a king, or warrior of renown or something. 14 feet would really be pushing the bounds of gravity.

Without further information this story is very difficult to verify.

Reply
Andy White
1/22/2015 09:48:56 pm

I think the most telling part of the story (and by "story" I mean the whole story of the letter, the sculpture, etc.) is the apparent complete lack of interest in critically evaluating the claim or even keeping straight the few details that are involved. Those things just aren't nearly as important as a good visual that resonates with a belief system. This speaks volumes about the threshold for what constitutes "good" evidence in the minds of those who very much want there to have been giants walking around on the planet.

Reply
Micah Ewers
1/23/2015 03:18:35 pm

Correct. And even if we had just a name of the guy who wrote the letter, maybe he could be tracked down and questioned more on this. Just too few details to go on.

Bob Jase
1/28/2015 12:06:50 am

So these giant remains aren't found in any real museums because all of them are run by atheists, ignoring the fact that there are some truly old museums that were started by devout believers. Then why aren't these marvels on display in churches, synagogues and mosques which are run by believers and are much older?

Reply
Andy White
1/28/2015 01:37:27 am

Right - excellent point. If my memory serves me right, there are accounts of "giant" bones being curated/displayed in religious contexts in Europe. They were removed once they were shown to be the bones of fossil elephants, etc. I don't have a source for that off the top of my head, but I'll look for one.

Reply
elizabeth
9/17/2015 06:23:04 pm

Have you seen the photo of two people beside their findings of giant bones? The photo is not labled but is amazing and it looks real. I found this accidentally while watching a video on You Tube called The Best of Russian Orthodox Music, the one that has a picture of an icon of Virgin Mary. go to 35.05 minutes in the video and there begins 2 or 3 amazing photos. it also has the photo you published.

Reply
Andy White
9/19/2015 10:55:30 am

I watched the video. As far as I know, those photos (other than Joe Taylor's sculpture) are all Photoshopped images. They pop up over and over again in various videos purporting to show evidence of "giants." Some of those kinds of images were created as deliberate hoaxes, while others were created for image manipulation contests.

Reply
Alberto R.
10/10/2016 10:46:20 am

In Baja California Mexico and South Baja got very little knowing similar stories about giants of about almost 4 meters., the Indians of that time make stories on how they live of fishing and hunting and how they died of sickness after the missioners came over .

Reply
Dennis Swift
4/26/2017 03:43:10 pm

I have talked with Joe about this. There is no evidence. Research in Turkey reveals nothing.

Reply
Trina
12/14/2017 09:31:58 pm

I'm atheist and I don't see any reason to suppress the existence of giants. A branch of large hunanoids would just be interesting aspect of evolution. It certainly wouldn't prove some religious tenant. I think it is safe to say that the existence of giants is not being hidden to protect athiest beliefs.

Reply
robert owen
1/2/2018 01:47:50 pm

I am NOT an atheist and do not see ANY conflict between Christian/Jewish doctrine and evolution. GOD is the maker of all things, including PROCESS. I believe that there were giants, because we have giants NOW. BTW, the word you are looking for is "tenets", not "tenants".

Reply
Andrew
4/5/2018 07:13:28 am

giants NOW? did I read that correctly? please show us evidence. and not one of those obvious fake photos from google search.

Keisha
12/27/2017 11:26:34 am

It's very disappointing that this whole story is based on an anonymous letter. I have been researching giants for a while, and I have very strong theories about the locations of the remains of the Giants. Genesis and Enoch aren't the only books to mention the Giants. Deuteronomy. The real issue in proving the existence of giants lies in any Archeologists not being able to acquire the excavation rights to dig in the holy country. The real giant skeletons, the Angel- human hybrids, do exist, waiting to be dug up.

Reply
Andy White
1/3/2018 06:59:55 am

You believe the giant skeletons exist, and yet you cannot point to a single piece of actual positive evidence, can you?

Reply
Alexis
12/31/2017 09:58:08 pm

Hey guys, simply analyze the femur to know if it's a real bone!

Reply
Rick
12/31/2017 10:56:27 pm

Touché, very witty!

Reply
Andy White
1/3/2018 07:00:32 am

It's not real. It's a sculpture.

Reply
Alexis link
4/5/2018 08:41:45 am

Some people say it's real, others say it's not. That's why I ask why don't you analyze the bone? That would end the controversy.

Jock Doubleday
1/5/2018 01:10:20 pm

Humans or humanoid beings grew to much, much larger sizes than most people have imagined.

Giant footprint - Subang, Jawa Barat (West Java), Indonesia.
https://www.facebook.com/SemirOsmanagich/photos/a.288652307817629.89487.288103227872537/1195853370430847/

Reply
Bob Jase
1/5/2018 01:13:30 pm

Some people will believe anything.

Reply
Simon
4/16/2018 03:17:42 pm

like evolution...?




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