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Words Matter: "Double Rows of Teeth," Jim Vieira, and the Deerfield Skeleton

12/14/2014

7 Comments

 
PictureDeerfield, MA: not home to a giant skeleton with double rows of teeth.
Jim Vieira, one of the stars of the History Channel program Search for the Lost Giants, describes reading the account of a large skeleton from Deerfield, Massachusetts, as a sort of “ah-ha” moment.  A post on his Facebook page (Stone Builders, Mound Builders and the Giants of Ancient America, December 5, 2012) describes it like this (emphasis added):

"Not long ago while reading through local town histories in my ongoing research of ancient stonework in New England, I came across a most curious passage in George Sheldon's 1895 The Town History of Deerfield,Ma. Volume 1, page 78. It read:

“At the foot of Bars Long Hill, just where the meadow fence crossed the road, and the bars were placed that gave the village its name, many skeletons were exposed while plowing down a bank, and weapons and implements were found in abundance. One of these skeletons was described to me by Henry Mather who saw it, as being of monstrous size — ‘the head as big as a peck basket, with double teeth all round.’ The skeleton was examined by Dr. Stephen W. Williams who said the owner must have been nearly eight feet high. In all the cases noted in this paragraph, the bodies were placed in a sitting posture, facing the east.”

I remembered reading many years earlier reports of giant skeletal discoveries from mound builder burial sites. In truth I just couldn't digest this information when I first came across it. If these reports were true, why hadn't I heard of this before? Wouldn't archaeologists and anthropologists be extremely interested in these amazing findings? Where are all the bones? So I put aside this whole strange subject for about 15 years. Then an eight-foot skeleton with double rows of teeth decided to get my attention.
"


Vieira tells a similar story about the origins of his interest in giants in this interview conducted by Hugh Newman (about 1:20 in) and in the first minutes of the first episode of Search for the Lost Giants (about 1:40 in on this copy).  In each case he says the Deerfield account is of a skeleton with "double rows of teeth."

I’m sure the story of the account of an “eight foot skeleton with double rows of teeth” is repeated by Vieira elsewhere:  it seems to have become part of his arrival story explaining his interest in giants. The problem is that it’s not true.  It contains a fundamental misinterpretation of what the account from Deerfield actually says.

The 1895 Deerfield account (transcribed below and available online here) does not say the skeleton had “double rows of teeth.”  Rather, it describes the skeleton has having “double teeth all around.”  Those are not the same thing.  As I discussed in this post and in posts about the skeletons from Ellensburg, Washington, and northern New Mexico, the phrase “double teeth all around” was commonly used in nineteenth century America to describe a set of teeth that, because of their worn state, appeared to consist entirely of “double teeth” aka molars.


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The pictures to the left show a comparison of a prehistoric maxilla with heavily worn incisors and canines (source) and the palate of a living person without such heavy wear (source).  I have also included a diagram of the human dentition for reference (source).  Note how the heavily worn incisors and canines in the archaeological specimen (top) have a very different shape than the unworn incisors and canines of the living person (middle): as the teeth are progressively worn down, their sharply pointed cusps disappear and the biting surface becomes broader in shape.  They begin to look more like grinding teeth (or “double teeth,” a 19th century synonym for molars) than cutting teeth.  This is why an individual with heavily worn anterior teeth is described as having “double teeth all around.”

The phrase “double teeth all around” used to describe the Deerfield skeleton was not intended to indicate that the skeleton had concentric rows of teeth.

The Deerfield skeleton did not have “double rows of teeth,” and I wonder when and if Jim Vieira will stop making that claim.  It's not accurate, and saying it over and over again does not make it so.  In this case, the specific words matter.  

There may be some accounts for which one can make a good case that the presence of actual “extra” teeth was being described (there are many cases today of individuals with extra teeth - it is not difficult to find them online), but I guarantee there will be many more accounts for which the interpretation of “double rows of teeth” cannot be justified under closer scrutiny.  I suggest that giantologists need to go through their "evidence" for double rows of teeth.  Evaluate these accounts critically in their contexts, one by one, rather than simply saying there are hundreds or thousands of them.  Many of these cases of "double rows of teeth" will disappear. 

Up next: Ohio.
[Excerpt from A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts, The Times when the People by Whom it was Settled, Unsettled and Resettled, by George Sheldon, 1895, pp. 78-79] [439 in my database]

Graves have been found singly or in groups in all parts of the town. On the side hill west of Old Fort, it was common, fifty years ago, to turn up Indian skulls while plowing with out disturbing any other bones. At the foot of Bars Long Hill, just where the meadow fence crossed the road, and the bars were placed which gave the village its name, many skeletons were exposed in plowing down a bank, and weapons and implements were found in abundance. One of these skeletons was described to me by Henry Mather who saw it, as being of monstrous size—" the head as big as a peck basket, with double teeth all round." Mather, who was about six feet tall, made the comparison, and says the thigh bones were about three inches longer than his own. The skeleton was examined by Dr. Stephen W. Williams, who said the owner must have been nearly eight feet high. In all the cases noted in this paragraph, the bodies had been placed in a sit ting posture, facing the east. In those that follow they were laid on the right side, as above described.

7 Comments
Bob Myers
12/14/2014 05:02:16 am

Andy, thanks for the follow, and for keeping this really fine blog going! Good digging!

Reply
Andy White
12/15/2014 05:57:27 am

Someone identifying himself as Chris L. Lesley posted this comment on a different blog post of mine (I'm pretty sure he meant to put it here):

I think what is written above is a good skeptical attempt, and i think some people may need an "out" door, any will do. There is simply more room for a double row of teeth in a person whose skull is abnormally thick (Concord, New Hampshire) as in many accounts. These jaws are said to be able to slip over the head of a full grown man and perfect all the way around in many accounts. I think its dishonest to assume some alternative to the semantics of a few (teeth were double) and assume intent of the writer. While so many other articles Like the finds in Amelia Island that not only that two skulls are said to have two rows of teeth, One of the skulls from Florida is said to have 3 rows of teeth. No explanation necessary, i will chose option 5) The author's rebuttal is cherry-picking. This research has been done by a handful of us giant-researchers now there is too many to count. For my part: by next year i will double the accounts that are available now. (with double rows of teeth) GAWM

Reply
Andy White
12/15/2014 10:21:06 pm

I'm guessing this is going to be a common refrain: "there are so many of them, you can't explain them all away." That isn't my goal. My goal is to examine these accounts critically and try to understand what they mean. I'm trying to explain them, not explain them away.

Reply
Graham
12/19/2014 10:59:15 am


Actually, it can be better boiled down to something I first heard on the Exposing PseudoAstronomy podcast, as I am paraphrasing it:

*. Evidence for the existence of Giants, is evidence for the existence of Giants.

*. Evidence against the existence of Giants was planted and is therefore evidence for the existence of Giants.

* Lack of evidence for the existence of Giants means that evidence was removed and is therefore evidence for the existence of Giants.

In short, any evidence you do come up with will be explained away by the believers as being the product of a vast and convoluted conspiracy involving governmental and quasi-governmental agencies which in the minds of believers have the power to control people and events even before those agencies were created and outside the boundaries of the country those agencies were created in.

Please, chastise being Anonymous
6/4/2015 10:36:26 am

Reply for Graham:
"In short, any evidence you do come up with will be explained away by the believers as being the product of a vast and convoluted conspiracy involving governmental and quasi-governmental agencies which in the minds of believers have the power to control people and events even before those agencies were created and outside the boundaries of the country those agencies were created in. "

Maybe they are merely people who have looked into enough topics that contradict the popular perspective on history/life/people/everything, and they are able to acknowledge that there are real conspiracies, every day, and people ignore the FOIA requests that prove them 50 years after the fact.

Please see anything related to MKULTRA.

Look, most of these people saying these crazy things that you naturally want to scoff at may actually be rational people. In my experience, many are, while there are plenty also selling BS. It's really up to you though whether or not you decide to disregard what they say. I would say that passing judgements on someone's views without hearing from them personally their reasons for having them is hugely disrespectful on a basic human level.

Honestly ask yourself this question: How often do you let the opinions of others determine your view on something?

I understand that you must weigh the probability of things you hear about being true, but should you really let that sole process determine whether or not you're going to be open to the possibility of wild theories and discoveries?

I have no stake in getting you to believe in the possibility of there having been some other race of people in human history who's existence has in one way or another been purportedly suppressed.

I do however, as another human being, have a stake in getting you to think in a fashion that is conducive to the open discussion of all human ideas, however crazy they may seem at any given moment in history.

Keep in mind the numerous scientific figures who have had their ideas crushed by the closed minded individuals that permeated the establishment of their day. They are abundant, and you should remember the whole story surrounding their achievements, not just the formula or theory they produced.

Andy White
12/19/2014 09:15:16 pm

I believe your summation is accurate. My primary goal, however, isn't to change the minds of the "believers," but to present an evidence-based case for those who might be looking for more information.

Reply
Zeppo
5/27/2021 03:55:38 pm

>The 1895 Deerfield account (transcribed below and available online here) does not say the skeleton had “double rows of teeth.” Rather, it describes the skeleton has having “double teeth all around.” Those are not the same thing.

Fair enough. But what about this quote from the Vieria book?

>“A few years ago when the highway was straightened and repaired, remains were found. When his skeleton was measured by Dr. Morrill Robinson and others, it was found that the thigh bone was four inches longer than that bone in an ordinary man, and that he had a double row of teeth in each jaw. (“History of the Town of Middleboro, Mass." Thomas Weston, 1906, pg. 400)

Vieria omits earlier passages describing the skeleton of an Anglo known as Mr. Richmond (not a Native American), but this source says "double row of teeth"


Reply



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