{"id":573,"date":"2026-02-23T01:32:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/?page_id=573"},"modified":"2026-04-17T17:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:38:27","slug":"myth-vs-reality","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/myth-vs-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Myth vs Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-632\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1463\/2026\/04\/6-scaled-e1776196211409.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1463\/2026\/04\/6-scaled-e1776196211409.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1463\/2026\/04\/6-scaled-e1776196211409-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1463\/2026\/04\/6-scaled-e1776196211409-1024x700.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1463\/2026\/04\/6-scaled-e1776196211409-768x525.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1463\/2026\/04\/6-scaled-e1776196211409-1536x1049.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1463\/2026\/04\/6-scaled-e1776196211409-2048x1399.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Cyclops and Giants Myths<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most Mastodon bones (and those of related species) were thought to be the bones of Giants for a period of time.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #cc0033\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1613- Mazuya\u2019s Giant<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Valiant describes the Mastodon&#8217;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 \u201cdiscovered them in a brick tomb thirty feet long by fifteen broad, inscribed with the name Teutobocchus Rex, a chief of the Cimbri\u201d \u2013 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #cc0033\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1705- Albany Giant<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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 \u201cagreeing only to a human body.\u201d 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 \u201cenormous osteological monster.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019s Giant Valiant &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/myth-vs-reality\/\" class=\"\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2208,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-573","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Myth vs Reality - Manny the Mastodon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most Mastodon bones (and those of related species) were thought to be the bones of Giants for a period of time. Valiant describes the Mastodon&#039;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 \u201cdiscovered them in a brick tomb thirty feet long by fifteen broad, inscribed with the name Teutobocchus Rex, a chief of the Cimbri\u201d \u2013 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.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/myth-vs-reality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Myth vs Reality - Manny the Mastodon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most Mastodon bones (and those of related species) were thought to be the bones of Giants for a period of time. Valiant describes the Mastodon&#039;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 \u201cdiscovered them in a brick tomb thirty feet long by fifteen broad, inscribed with the name Teutobocchus Rex, a chief of the Cimbri\u201d \u2013 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.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/myth-vs-reality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Manny the Mastodon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-17T17:38:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1463\/2026\/04\/6-scaled-e1776196211409.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/myth-vs-reality\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/myth-vs-reality\/\",\"name\":\"Myth vs Reality - Manny the Mastodon\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/myth-vs-reality\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/myth-vs-reality\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/manny-the-mastodon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1463\/2026\/04\/6-scaled-e1776196211409.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-23T01:32:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-17T17:38:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"Most Mastodon bones (and those of related species) were thought to be the bones of Giants for a period of time. 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