Myth vs Reality

The Cyclops and Giants Myths

Most Mastodon bones (and those of related species) were thought to be the bones of Giants for a period of time.

1613- Mazuya’s Giant

Valiant describes the Mastodon’s journey as beginning in 1613, when some bones were found near a castle in the former province of Dauphine, France. Mazuya lied about having purchased the bones and instead claimed, according to Valiant, that he had “discovered them in a brick tomb thirty feet long by fifteen broad, inscribed with the name Teutobocchus Rex, a chief of the Cimbri” – Teutobochus, was, according to legends, a giant and king of the Teutons, an ancient northern European people who were at odds with the Roman Republic. 

He paraded around the skeleton in various exhibitions. An anatomist later examined the bones and determined they were those of an elephant. They were then moved to the Museum of Natural History in Paris in 1832, according to Valiant, where they determined the bones as those of a Mastodon. Even more recently, in 1984, they were identified as the bones of a Deinotherium. They are still on display at the Museum of Natural History in France today.

1705- Albany Giant

Large bones were discovered in 1705, south of Albany, NY. As described by Dr. Cotton Mather, there was additional proof of ancient giants. Described one of the teeth as “agreeing only to a human body.” In 1801, a nearly complete skeleton was constructed from the bones of several mastodons found in Orange County, New York. Some individuals were desperate to arrange the bones so they might resemble a giant, constructing what Valliant calls an “enormous osteological monster.”