Hortensia de los Santos

Could the Myths About Giants Be Memories?

Across cultures and continents, stories of giants have persisted —beings towering over 11 feet tall, often linked to a lost age and great catastrophe. This study proposes that these legends may reflect real beings who lived during a time when Earth’s gravity was lower and its atmosphere denser—conditions made possible before two massive impact events forever changed the planet’s structure. Drawing from ancient texts, anatomical analysis, and geological anomalies like the 80-million-year discontinuity, this theory offers a compelling bridge between myth and science: that the giants of old perished not in fantasy, but through a profound shift in Earth’s physical reality.

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Preamble

What led me to this reasoning is the consideration on the ancient unit of length the Cubit; its name, the way it was calculated and the common use across different cultures

A cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It varies slightly between cultures and time periods, but it's generally around: 18 inches (about 45.72 cm) for the common cubit or 20.6–21 inches (about 52.5 cm) for the royal cubit used in ancient Egypt.

Different civilizations had their own standards:

• Egyptians: used a "royal cubit" marked on rods (with palm and finger subdivisions)
• Hebrews: used the cubit in temple measurements (e.g., in the Bible)
• Mesopotamians: had cubits used in building and legal codes
• Because it was based on the human body, it was practical but not always consistent—hence the royal or standardized versions carved in stone or cast in metal.

The human arm has three main bones:

• 1. Humerus – the long bone of the upper arm, running from the shoulder to the elbow.
• 2. Radius – one of the two bones in the forearm, located on the thumb side when your palm is facing up.
• 3. Ulna – the other forearm bone, on the pinky side, slightly longer than the radius and forming the point of the elbow.
• The ulna in Spanish is called "cúbito."

So, the three main bones of the arm in Spanish are:

• 1. Húmero – humerus
• 2. Radio – radius
• 3. Cúbito – ulna
• The Spanish word "cúbito" comes from the Latin word cubitus. So the Latin cubitus (from the verb cubare, "to lie down") referred to the bent arm used as a support—and by extension, also became the name for that part of the arm and for the unit of measurement (the cubit).
• In anatomical Latin, the bone was named ulna, but in everyday and medieval Latin, cubitus often referred to both the elbow region and the length from elbow to fingertip.

In a typical adult human:

• The ulna is about 27–30 cm long (roughly 11–12 inches)
• And that fits into an overall height of about 5'6" to 6'
• If a person had an ulna the size of a full cubit (52.5 cm), how tall would they have been?
• Let’s assume normal human proportions hold: The ulna is roughly 15% of total body height
• Estimated height=52.5 cm0.15≈350 cm⇒about 11.5 feet tall
• If someone had a cúbito (ulna) bone measuring a royal cubit in length, they’d likely have stood around 11.5 feet tall (3.5 meters)—well beyond normal human range, entering the territory of biblical giants or mythological beings that seems to be the height some said giants were

1. Mythological and Historical Accounts of Giants

• The Bible (e.g., Goliath) – Goliath’s height is given as "six cubits and a span", which equals about 3.2 meters (10.5 ft) using a royal cubit. That lines up almost exactly with our ulna-to-height estimate.
• Book of Enoch / Dead Sea Scrolls – Mentions giants ranging from 10 to 300 cubits, though likely symbolic exaggeration.
• Greek mythology (Titans, Cyclopes) – Often depicted as 10–15 ft tall.
• Basque legend of Jentilak – Stone-lifting giants said to be three times taller than a man.
• Native American lore (e.g., Paiute "Si-Te-Cah") – Describes red-haired giants allegedly 10–12 ft tall.

2. Fossil Evidence and Human Limits

• While no verified hominin matches that scale, a few come close in parts:
• Gigantopithecus (extinct great ape) – Estimated 10 ft tall, but quadrupedal and not human.
• Homo heidelbergensis – Some very large remains suggest heights up to 7 ft, but not 10+.
• Robert Wadlow (modern human) – Tallest recorded person at 8 ft 11 in (2.72 m). His ulna was about 47 cmlong—already close to a cubit.

3. Anatomical Reality Check

• If such giants existed:
• Their bones would need to be massively denser to support the weight (muscle grows linearly, weight cubically).
• They might have had different proportions (e.g., longer arms, thicker joints).
• Human hearts and lungs would struggle at that size without adaptation—unless they had different physiologyaltogether.

Possibilities:

• Lost race or hybrid beings? Often hinted at in myths and esoteric texts (e.g., Nephilim, Watchers).
• Survivors of a different branch of hominins?
• Symbolic, spiritual, or ritual exaggerations—or records of actual encounters with rare anomalies?

Ancient Reports

1. Hebrew Scriptures / Bible

• Genesis 6:4 – The Nephilim "There were giants in the earth in those days...when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them..."
• The word Nephilim has been translated as giants, though it literally means fallen ones.
• They were hybrid offspring, possibly part-divine, and were said to be mighty men of old, men of renown.
• Some interpret them as being 10+ feet tall, based on later measurements like Goliath.

• 1 Samuel 17:4

  – Goliath of Gath: "And there went out a champion...whose height was six cubits and a span." Using the royal cubit (52.5 cm), 6 cubits = 315 cm, 1 span (about 22 cm) → Total = 337 cm (11 ft)

• Deuteronomy 3:11

  – King Og of Bashan: "For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants; behold, his bedstead...was nine cubits in length." 9 cubits = ~472.5 cm → about 15.5 feet long bed, implying Og could have been 13–14 feet tall.

• 2. Book of Enoch (Apocryphal / Ethiopic Canon)

  "...they [the fallen angels] begat giants, whose height was three thousand ells..." (1 Enoch 7:2). The word ell or cubit varies, but 3000 ells is clearly hyperbolic. Still, the Watchers' offspring were described as consuming all human food, even turning on mankind.

2. Greek Texts & Myths: Hesiod and Homer

• Giants like the Titans, Cyclopes, and Aloadae are described as towering beings—"as high as mountains."
• Otus and Ephialtes, twin giants, tried to stack mountains to reach Olympus—symbolic, but also suggests their scale.

3. Mesopotamian Texts

• Epic of Gilgamesh: Gilgamesh is 2/3 divine, 1/3 human.
• T Described as 11 cubits tall in some versions:→ 11 x 52.5 cm = 577.5 cm (nearly 19 feet!)
• THe wields weapons that only several men can carry, and his strength is beyond mortal.

4. Norse Mythology

• Jötnar (giants) were beings who predated the gods.
• Often larger than life, marrying or battling the Aesir.
• Ymir, the first giant, was so large his body formed the Earth—pure mythic scale.

5. Hindu Epics

• Some rakshasas (demons) and asuras in the Mahabharata and Ramayana are described as towering, strong enough to fight gods, or reach the sky.
• Proportions aren’t given in cubits, but metaphors suggest beings much taller than humans.

6. Native American and Other Global Legends

• Paiute (Nevada): spoke of red-haired giants (Si-Te-Cah), who were enemies of local tribes and much taller.
• Maya and Aztec codices speak of previous races of giants who were destroyed by floods or fire.

Giants Matching the 11-Foot Height Range:

• 1. Goliath of Gath – 11 ft (Biblical)
• 2. Nephilim – Varied; ~10–12 ft (Biblical hybrids)
• 3. Red-Haired Giants (Paiute) – 10–12 ft (Native American oral tradition)

• There’s a remarkable consistency in the size range assigned to giants across many cultures and time periods. That consistency becomes even more intriguing when we consider the method of body-based measurement like the cubit—something so old and yet so precise.

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