- 2 hours ago
- #brightside
- #brightsideglobal
Some of the foods we love today, such as potatoes, tomatoes, and chocolate, would not exist in our cuisine if Columbus had not discovered the Americas. They all originated from the New World. The spice trade would also be very different, without chili peppers to add some heat to European dishes. Imagine how different history would be if the native cultures of the Americas were not affected by European colonization, and if Europe did not benefit from the resources of the New World. In a world without Columbus's journeys, our taste buds would be different and maybe we would live in a world where fries are just fries, without any chili!
#brightside #brightsideglobal
TIMESTAMPS:
0:01 What if Columbus hadn't reached the Americas
08:42 People who reached the Americas before Columbus
18:35 Ancient giants in America
This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
#brightside #brightsideglobal
TIMESTAMPS:
0:01 What if Columbus hadn't reached the Americas
08:42 People who reached the Americas before Columbus
18:35 Ancient giants in America
This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00It was hot in the tropics, a type of heat unknown to the men aboard the Niña, the Pinta, and
00:07the Santa Maria ships, led by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.
00:12It had been months since these men left their home cities in Europe, and until then, Europe was all they
00:18knew.
00:19They were given a difficult and even dangerous task.
00:22Spain hired Columbus to find a new western route to Asia.
00:26They needed new routes for trading and buying spices, but it was far from a simple job.
00:32I mean, crossing the ocean never is.
00:36Little did those sailors know that their lives were about to change forever.
00:40Land in sight! Someone must have shouted on board.
00:44But when they finally stepped on that new foreign land, they discovered they were not in Asia.
00:49They had landed in the Americas.
00:53You've probably heard this tale before.
00:56Historically speaking, Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492.
01:01But what would have happened if Columbus' ship had faced a lethal storm in the Atlantic Ocean and had never
01:07made it to the new land?
01:09What would today's history look like?
01:12First things first, nobody discovered anything.
01:15When we say that the Americas were discovered, we're kind of ignoring the millions of people who already lived there.
01:22You see, the Americas were only discovered from Europe's point of view.
01:27Columbus would only have discovered something if when he got there, he was faced with acres and acres of empty
01:33land.
01:33But that was not the case at all.
01:36Second, Columbus was not the first explorer to land in the Americas.
01:41Believe it or not, the Vikings approached American shores in the 10th century.
01:46Their expeditions have been well-documented and accepted by scholars.
01:51Here's what might have happened.
01:53Around the year 1000 CE, Viking explorer Leif Erikson sailed to a place called Vinland.
01:59Cute name, huh?
02:00It's now a region in Canada called Newfoundland.
02:04But his crew didn't stay too long.
02:06They arrived to find 10 Native Americans napping under their overturned canoes.
02:11They attempted some trade, but I'm guessing the Vikings weren't too friendly and the Americans didn't really like them.
02:17The Vikings' account of the encounter shows they felt outnumbered and menaced.
02:22So they sailed a way back to their land.
02:25That makes sense, right?
02:27As I said earlier, there were millions of people living in the ginormous continent of the Americas.
02:33Any foreigner would be outnumbered there.
02:36Now take a look at what North America looked like before our buddy Chris got there.
02:41It was not divided into the normal states we're used to.
02:45And if Columbus had never arrived, the United States would probably never have been united to begin with.
02:52After all, there were hundreds of first Americans living in these lands,
02:55and they lived amongst their own tribes, quite different from the Europeans.
03:01It's not accurate to think that there were no political systems going on in the Americas before Europeans arrived.
03:07We just need to understand that they were different from what we're used to today.
03:12When Europeans arrived, they imported their belief systems with them,
03:15from religious beliefs and language systems to things as simple as clothing habits.
03:20If the Americas had developed on their own, maybe their sense of fashion would be completely different today.
03:27You see, Europeans had a developed sense of fashion by the time they arrived in the West.
03:33They wore things such as this and this.
03:36But those don't really work in the tropics, do they?
03:39For them, fashion had to do with showing a certain economic status.
03:44While in the Americas, that didn't exist.
03:48For Native Americans, clothing was mainly functional and related to the weather.
03:52In warmer climates, Native people would wear short-like cloths to cover their intimate parts.
03:58They would walk bare-chested and use shoes known as moccasins.
04:02Yes, similar to the moccasins you probably own.
04:05In colder climates, they would resort to using leather and fur parkas.
04:10Of course, there was always the special clothing used for ceremonial purposes.
04:14So I'm guessing that if Columbus never reached the Americas,
04:18brands such as The Gap, Hollister, and Forever 21 would have never existed.
04:23But we could live with that, couldn't we?
04:26Here's a wild thought.
04:27Let's say that by the 1700s, Native Americans had developed complex engineering skills.
04:33They built big boats, maybe a bit smaller in size than the traditional European ships,
04:39and decided to venture across the ocean.
04:41Let's say they were the ones who arrived on European shores,
04:45in places such as Spain and Portugal.
04:48They carried gifts and goods with them for trading, of course.
04:51This was also a common practice amongst them back home, known as potlatch.
04:57Sure, they were received with suspicion by the Europeans,
05:00who had only ever traded with Asia.
05:02But with this inverted encounter,
05:04a different type of relationship began between Native Americans and Europeans.
05:10Since Europeans didn't claim ownership of the Americas,
05:13the people from the so-called New Land weren't considered inferior to them.
05:18Actually, they stood side by side as equals,
05:21each one with their own power and set of knowledge.
05:24Native Americans taught Europeans a new type of ruling system,
05:28a more decentralized one.
05:29So modern-day structures of government would look really different.
05:33But maybe Europeans decided that four years was a long time for someone to hold decision power.
05:39So they implemented smaller and more frequent elections.
05:43Oh, and the landscape of European cities also changed a lot.
05:47Instead of huge statues made of copper and bronze,
05:50showing men and ships on their way to the Americas,
05:53the Europeans built totem poles,
05:55in honor of their alliances with first Americans.
05:58In terms of medical and medicinal knowledge,
06:01they had a lot to exchange about.
06:03While Europeans were making advances in traditional medicine,
06:07Americans had developed an impressive knowledge of herbs that could heal a series of things.
06:12Before they knew it,
06:13Europeans were selling different varieties of plants in their pharmaceutical establishments.
06:18They had one big barrier, though.
06:21Language.
06:22Since Europeans never arrived on American shores,
06:24they also never taught their language to Americans.
06:28So maybe in this scenario,
06:30both cultures brought in their best linguists
06:32and tried creating a new language from scratch.
06:35Something that could be comprehensible from both perspectives
06:38and that could encompass both of their worldviews.
06:42The implications of this on modern-day life would be really profound
06:46if you stopped to think about it.
06:48Let's say that this newly created language involved some symbols and drawings in it.
06:53You see, Native Americans often told stories using symbols known as pictograms.
06:58They were quite literal sometimes.
07:01As you can see, a mountain was represented by, well, a mountain.
07:05It's crazy to think that this system of communication has been around for 5,000 years,
07:11since it was actually invented by the Sumerians.
07:14And hey, maybe even our laptop keyboards would come equipped with these symbols,
07:18and you could write more visually hybrid and fun emails than the ones you write today.
07:24The American landscape would have also changed.
07:27You see, if neither Columbus nor any of the other European dudes
07:31that went after him reached the so-called new land,
07:33Central and Latin American cities would look completely different than they do today.
07:39Maybe the bustling empires of the time,
07:42such as the Inca, the Maya, and the Aztec,
07:44would have grown immensely.
07:46To be fair, they were already pretty big by the time Europeans got there.
07:50Some pre-Columbian Maya cities were as big as medieval London and Paris in terms of population.
07:56But oh my, the Mayan Empire would have grown so much
08:00that it could have spread out all over of Central America.
08:04They could have developed their pyramid building craft up
08:07to the point that they managed to build an even larger pyramid
08:10than the Giza pyramid in Egypt.
08:12So tourists would come from all over the world to visit.
08:16Ah, and in South America,
08:18let's just say the region could have turned into a huge forest,
08:22bigger than the Amazon.
08:23The Inca could have spread through the Andes and then into the mainland.
08:27Places such as Brazil and Argentina never existed.
08:31But in their place, there would have been dreamy tropical settlements,
08:35which would have become a worldwide reference in sustainable living.
08:42In 1928, Gloria Farley was a young girl with a big passion for exploration.
08:49She grew up in the town of Heavener, Oklahoma,
08:52and loved to visit local parks.
08:54One day, she found a weird-looking stone
08:57that had some bizarre symbols on it.
09:00Her fascination with the mysterious writings continued to grow.
09:04So, two decades later, she returned to study them
09:08and made a whole career out of it.
09:11See these weird drawings that Gloria stumbled upon back then?
09:15They're officially called runes,
09:18and they were a system of writing used by Vikings
09:20and ancient Scandinavian people.
09:24The word rune itself translates to
09:27secret word or secret letter.
09:30Runes were made up of different symbols,
09:32each representing a different sound or concept.
09:35These symbols were carved into stone or wood
09:38and were often used for inscriptions and messages.
09:41As an important part of Viking culture,
09:44they were used everywhere,
09:46from spiritual texts to everyday communication.
09:51Why are these writings so interesting in the first place?
09:54Firstly, because there is no official text
09:57that explains the history or creation of the Viking runes.
10:01Some Vikings engraved runes onto the trunk of a tree
10:05named Yggdrasil.
10:07It was a mythical tree in Norse mythology.
10:09It was believed to connect the nine realms of the universe.
10:13It's described as a huge ash tree
10:16with branches that reach out to all corners of the world.
10:19The tree is often depicted with three main roots,
10:23one on Earth,
10:24one more extending into the underworld,
10:26and the last one reaching the realm of spirits.
10:31It's a symbol of the connection between things
10:33and the cyclical nature of life.
10:36But this is just folklore.
10:39In reality,
10:40the origin of runes has not been officially determined yet.
10:44Many people even question
10:45whether Vikings originally used runes,
10:48mostly because they think Vikings
10:50acquired their knowledge of runes during their travels.
10:54We know that Vikings traveled to many different places
10:57throughout their history.
10:58They started in Scandinavia,
11:01then went on to visit the rest of Europe,
11:03including the British Isles,
11:04France,
11:05Germany,
11:06and Italy.
11:07Some even reached the northern parts of Africa
11:09and certain regions of Central Asia,
11:12going as far as the Caspian Sea
11:14and the Black Sea.
11:16But there's another theory about Vikings
11:18and their travels
11:19that continues to baffle historians.
11:22Did Vikings actually discover America?
11:26Well,
11:27for starters,
11:28America was not discovered by anyone.
11:31The landmass of North and South America
11:33had been inhabited by indigenous peoples
11:36for thousands of years
11:37before the arrival of European explorers.
11:40But the first known European to reach the Americas
11:43was Christopher Columbus,
11:45who arrived at the Bahamas in 1492.
11:49So, why do some people believe Vikings might have gotten there first?
11:55We have to travel back to the 19th century,
11:58when the idea that the Norse were the first Europeans to discover America took off.
12:03This belief was based on runes and Norse artifacts found in different areas in the U.S.
12:10That cobblestone path,
12:12that cobblestone path, first discovered by Gloria Farley,
12:14located in Hevener Runestone Park in Oklahoma,
12:17seems to tell the same story.
12:19To this day, this slab is one of the biggest historical mysteries in the U.S.
12:24Some believe that the runes on the stone were carved by Norse explorers in 1000 CE.
12:33At one point in her career,
12:36Gloria even reached out to the Smithsonian Institution
12:38and found out that they had already concluded in 1923
12:42that the symbols had indeed been from a Scandinavian language.
12:47They translated to
12:52which in turn translated to
12:56or
12:57or Monument Valley.
12:58This information answered the question of what language the symbols belonged to,
13:03but left two other questions unanswered.
13:06Who carved the symbols?
13:07And when were they carved?
13:10During her professional life,
13:13Gloria collaborated with specialists in Norse history,
13:16geology,
13:17and epigraphy.
13:18She collected evidence that backed up her theory
13:21that Vikings had explored North America
13:24and could have easily navigated shallow rivers and creeks in their longboats.
13:30Though it may seem unlikely,
13:33it's not impossible
13:34that Vikings once sailed down the Mississippi River.
13:38In fact,
13:40Viking runestones
13:41have been found in various places
13:43all over North America,
13:45including Minnesota and Maine.
13:47In Oklahoma,
13:48researchers have discovered six of these runestones in total,
13:52though their validity is still uncertain.
13:56One Norse settlement,
13:57L'Anse-Aumédos in Canada,
14:00has been confirmed to date back to 1021 CE.
14:05This supports the idea of the Viking activity in North America
14:09during the estimated period of time of the Hevener runestone.
14:14The Hevener runestone's age
14:16cannot be determined through traditional scientific methods,
14:19like carbon dating
14:21or organic material decay rate analysis.
14:24Therefore,
14:25researchers started to look for other evidence,
14:28like Viking artifacts
14:29or any other signs of their activity in the area.
14:33But none has been found to this day.
14:36That's why Vikings really visiting Oklahoma
14:38is a subject still up for debate.
14:42We can't finish our story about the Viking runes
14:45without mentioning the Futhark,
14:48which is a 16-letter alphabet.
14:50It was the basis for the earliest runic inscriptions
14:53that date back to around 200 BCE.
14:57At that time,
14:58the alphabet consisted of 24 letters.
15:01By 800 BCE,
15:03the number of letters was reduced to 16.
15:07The use of runes continued until the Middle Ages.
15:10Inscriptions on stone and wood
15:12were made with regular runes,
15:14while a different version of the alphabet
15:16was used for everyday messages
15:18on wood or bone.
15:21Runes were also commonly used on objects
15:24like combs to identify the owner.
15:27In the Viking culture,
15:28runes were used to honor brave fighters and heroes
15:31on memorial stones,
15:32such as the famous jelling stone
15:35in Jutland, Denmark.
15:37These stones were placed in public areas
15:39for all to see
15:40and had a big impact on the local culture.
15:45Runes weren't the only interesting part
15:47of the Viking heritage.
15:48Contrary to popular belief,
15:51Vikings were actually known for their cleanliness.
15:54Excavations of Viking sites
15:55have revealed that they had access
15:57to grooming tools,
15:58such as tweezers, razors,
16:01combs, and ear cleaners.
16:03Additionally,
16:04they were known to bathe regularly,
16:07often taking advantage
16:08of natural hot springs
16:09for their hygiene routine.
16:11This was in stark contrast
16:13to the hygiene habits
16:14of other Europeans at the time.
16:18They also had a knack
16:20for winter sports,
16:21which is not surprising,
16:23given the Scandinavian weather.
16:25At least 6,000 years ago,
16:28Scandinavians created primitive skis,
16:30though it's believed that Asians
16:32may have invented them earlier.
16:35During the Viking Age,
16:37Norse people used skis for transportation
16:39and also for fun.
16:41They even had a spirit protector of skiing
16:44named Ullr,
16:46who was revered by Vikings.
16:49Vikings even had their own beauty standards,
16:52which were very important to them.
16:54Viking men who were not naturally blonde
16:56would use a strong soap
16:58with a high lye content
17:00to lighten their hair
17:01and conform to their culture's beauty standards.
17:04In some cases,
17:06beards were also lightened.
17:08These treatments may have also helped
17:10with another delicate issue of the time,
17:11that of head lice.
17:15Vikings were also known
17:17for their powerful shifts,
17:18which were crucial
17:19to their expansion strategy.
17:22Their most commonly used boats
17:24were longboats,
17:25which could carry up to 60 people
17:27and were designed
17:28for easy docking and departure.
17:31Viking ships were typically made of wood,
17:33with the hull constructed
17:35using overlapping planks
17:36held together by iron rivets.
17:39The ships were powered
17:41by both sails and oars
17:42and were often decorated
17:44with intricate carvings
17:45and animal figureheads.
17:48The reasons behind Vikings
17:50traveling almost everywhere in the world
17:52are not well understood.
17:55One theory suggests
17:56that their raiding trips
17:58were a result of limited opportunities
18:00in Scandinavia,
18:01including a lack of farmland
18:03and the practice of fathers
18:05leaving all their property
18:06to their oldest son.
18:07This left younger sons
18:09with no inheritance
18:10and no chance
18:11of finding land on their own,
18:13making them go
18:14on Viking explorations.
18:18Another theory is that
18:19there was an imbalance
18:20in the population of Scandinavia
18:22with too many men
18:23and not enough women.
18:25This may have led Vikings
18:27to not only go searching
18:28for foreign treasures,
18:29but also to attract women
18:31as wives during their travels.
18:36What makes a giant,
18:38well, a giant?
18:39You know, big, enormous,
18:41you get it.
18:42Tough questions.
18:42It depends on who you ask.
18:45The ancient Greeks
18:46had cyclops,
18:48while ogres were spread out
18:49through all sorts
18:50of European folklore tales.
18:52The tallest person
18:53ever recorded
18:54was named Robert Pershing Wadlow,
18:57and he lived in the first half
18:58of the 20th century.
18:59He stood at an incredible
19:018 feet 11 inches tall,
19:03but had many medical issues
19:04throughout his life.
19:05Sadly, he only lived
19:07to celebrate
19:07his 22nd birthday.
19:09That's because Robert
19:10wasn't just tall.
19:11He had a condition
19:12affecting his human growth hormone,
19:14which didn't particularly
19:15make his life comfortable.
19:17Robert even had to wear
19:18leg braces
19:19in his adult years.
19:22During that same time,
19:24incredible discoveries
19:25were reported
19:26in North America.
19:27Some people claimed
19:29to have uncovered
19:29weird-looking skeletons
19:31much larger than
19:32previously associated
19:33with human beings.
19:34It immediately raised
19:35the question,
19:36did giants really
19:37used to roam our planet?
19:39Our story begins
19:40with the idea
19:41of a mound builder race.
19:42Some scientists
19:43back in the day
19:44claimed that these
19:45massive earthworks
19:46in places like
19:47the Mississippi Valley,
19:48called the Grave Creek
19:50Mound,
19:50or the Great Serpent Mound,
19:52were built by some sort
19:53of prehistoric type of human,
19:55much larger and stronger
19:56than us Homo sapiens
19:58are today.
20:01From around 1812
20:03to the 1860s,
20:04almost everyone in America
20:06writing about history
20:07was covering this
20:08mound-building race.
20:10However,
20:10not everyone agreed
20:11with the theory.
20:12There was this naturalist
20:14named Benjamin Smith Barden,
20:16for example,
20:16who warned about
20:17jumping to conclusions
20:18about giants.
20:20He believed that
20:20just because people
20:21discovered some big bones,
20:23they shouldn't immediately
20:24think of giants.
20:26But people didn't listen.
20:28Really?
20:28They simply wanted to believe
20:30about huge human-like creatures,
20:32despite not having
20:33any real scientific evidence.
20:36Newspapers were filled
20:37with these giant stories.
20:39They described finding
20:40giant skeletons,
20:41even featuring weird body parts.
20:44Con artists took advantage
20:45of the whole frenzy,
20:46with some putting together
20:47skeletons out of wood
20:49and rawhide
20:49and touring them
20:51as proof
20:51of the long-lost
20:53race of giants.
20:56Eventually,
20:57in the 1930s,
20:58an anthropologist
20:59from the Smithsonian
21:00took it upon himself
21:01to debunk
21:02the whole mystery.
21:03And his conclusions
21:04were straightforward.
21:05All those giant skeletons
21:07that were supposedly
21:08uncovered
21:09were either hoaxes
21:10or simply animal bones
21:12that were wrongly identified
21:13as belonging to humans.
21:15He also said
21:16that those who claimed
21:17to have discovered
21:18ancient giant remains
21:19were just not that good
21:21with human anatomy.
21:22You would think
21:23that's how the story ended.
21:25Well, it didn't.
21:26You see,
21:27people became so convinced
21:28that giants existed
21:30that they simply
21:31could not let go.
21:32Sound familiar?
21:33Because the Smithsonian
21:34was investigating
21:35these claims,
21:37some people started thinking
21:38they were up
21:39to something shady.
21:40They cooked up this theory
21:42that the Smithsonian scientists
21:43were secretly getting rid
21:45of giant bones
21:46to hide the truth
21:48about giants.
21:51This whole story
21:52survived through the years
21:53and made it all the way
21:54to 2014.
21:56It's when this
21:57Internet article
21:58said that the Smithsonian
21:59used to have tons
22:00of giant skeletons
22:01but destroyed them
22:02back in the early 1900s.
22:04And the drama continued.
22:07A famed publication
22:08even looked into the past
22:10of some of those
22:10Smithsonian scholars
22:11to try and pick apart
22:13their credibility.
22:14So, the Institute
22:15had to do some
22:16damage control.
22:17They've since added
22:18new people on the team
22:19whose job is to figure out
22:21if those bones
22:22were correctly collected
22:23and studied.
22:26Now, it wasn't just
22:27North Americans
22:28that claimed
22:29to have stumbled
22:29upon giants.
22:30The French
22:31had their own
22:32discoveries, too.
22:33Their story
22:34takes us back
22:35to 1890
22:35when an anthropologist
22:37was digging around
22:38a Bronze Age site
22:39in Castanot, France.
22:42What he found
22:43were three bone pieces
22:44that looked like
22:45they came from
22:45a giant human.
22:46The findings included
22:48a massive thigh bone,
22:49a shin bone,
22:50and a regular
22:51upper arm bone
22:52known as a humerus.
22:54Now, if we put
22:55all these bones together
22:56and calculate
22:57the proportions,
22:58they lead us
22:58to this towering figure,
23:00somewhere between
23:0110 and 11 feet tall.
23:03However, in 2022,
23:06contemporary scientists
23:07took another look
23:08at those bones.
23:09They concluded
23:10they most likely
23:11belonged to a cave bear,
23:13not a human.
23:14It wasn't that unusual
23:16for people
23:16back in the day
23:17to confuse
23:18giant animal bones
23:20with those of humans.
23:24Now, the truth is,
23:25our ancestors
23:26were in fact
23:27taller than we are today,
23:28despite them not being
23:30technically giants.
23:31The average human body
23:33has changed a lot
23:34over thousands of years.
23:35We're not as big
23:36and strong
23:37as our ancestors were.
23:38In fact,
23:39we've been on a bit
23:40of a downsizing trend,
23:42especially in the last
23:4310,000 years.
23:44And it's because
23:45of a mix of factors.
23:46Our genes,
23:47the world around us,
23:48and how we live our lives
23:50all play a role.
23:52Way back,
23:53around 40,000 years ago,
23:55European men
23:56were towering
23:57at around 6 feet.
23:58They had a seriously
23:59tough life, though,
24:00hunting and gathering
24:01all day.
24:02That lifestyle required
24:04a good muscle structure,
24:05and their African roots
24:06might have given them
24:07that extra height,
24:09which came in handy
24:10in warm climates.
24:12Moving on to
24:1310,000 years ago,
24:14we can already see
24:15a big change
24:16in European males.
24:17They went down
24:18to 5 feet 4 inches
24:20on average.
24:21What happened was
24:22the climate was shifting,
24:23and people were
24:24increasingly relying
24:25on agriculture
24:26to provide
24:27for their families.
24:28It wasn't all
24:29sunshine and comfort,
24:30though.
24:31Sometimes,
24:32failed crops
24:32and a not-so-diverse
24:34food meant
24:35a pretty unhealthy diet.
24:37Plus,
24:38being around farm animals
24:39more and more
24:40introduced some new
24:41medical issues
24:42to the mix.
24:44We're now around
24:45600 years ago
24:46when the shortness
24:47continued.
24:48And yes,
24:49we can still blame it
24:50on poor diet and health.
24:51However,
24:52there seems to be
24:53a change in recent years.
24:55Today,
24:56European males
24:56are reaching an average
24:57of 5 feet 9 inches.
24:59And sure,
25:00the fact that we're
25:01eating more veggies
25:02and getting regular
25:03checkups at the doctor
25:04did help a lot.
25:05But it's also because
25:07of industrialization
25:08and living in cities.
25:09This has brought people
25:11from different backgrounds
25:12together,
25:12which is a good thing.
25:13It decreases the chances
25:15of human passing on genes
25:16that could cause problems.
25:18So,
25:18it's a combination
25:19of better living
25:20and genetics
25:21that's making us taller.
25:26We shouldn't give up
25:27on ancient giants
25:28quite yet, though.
25:29You see,
25:30experts believe
25:31they recently discovered
25:32the remains
25:33of such a person
25:34who supposedly lived
25:35in ancient Egypt.
25:37Sometimes,
25:37people can actually grow
25:38to large sizes
25:39due to a condition
25:41called gigantism,
25:42the same that made
25:43Robert Pershing Wadlow
25:44grow to such
25:45an impressive height.
25:47When some archaeologists
25:48were studying
25:49ancient Egyptian mummies,
25:50they came upon
25:51an interesting skeleton.
25:53What made it special
25:54was that they believed
25:55it might have belonged
25:56to a pharaoh
25:57who would have been
25:58really tall,
25:59like 6 feet 6 inches tall.
26:01To put that in perspective,
26:03that's way taller
26:04than Ramses II,
26:06who was the tallest
26:07recorded Egyptian pharaoh
26:09and stood at about
26:105 feet 9 inches.
26:12These experts took
26:13a closer look
26:14at the newly found bones,
26:15especially the long ones,
26:17and found evidence
26:18of something called
26:19exuberant growth,
26:20which basically means
26:21this person's growth
26:22was off the charts.
26:24It's a clear sign
26:25of gigantism,
26:26they say.
26:27Now,
26:28this discovery is important
26:29because it makes this mummy
26:30the oldest case
26:31of gigantism
26:32in the world.
26:33No other Egyptian pharaohs
26:35were known to be giants.
26:36It's also fascinating
26:38because it tells us
26:39something about
26:40the health and nutrition
26:41of ancient Egyptian rulers.
26:44See,
26:45those pharaohs
26:45were probably better fed
26:47and healthier
26:47than regular people,
26:49which might explain
26:50why they could grow taller
26:51than the average person.
26:53Now,
26:54you might be wondering
26:55if being a giant
26:56had any drawbacks
26:57back then.
26:58Well,
26:59it's hard to say.
27:00I wasn't around then.
27:02Still,
27:02during those early dynasties
27:04in Egypt,
27:05they seemed to prefer
27:06shorter people,
27:07especially in royal service.
27:09There are a lot
27:10of ancient Egyptian stories
27:12featuring short-statured leaders
27:13and even higher spirits
27:15that locals looked up to.
27:17The reason why
27:18is still a mystery
27:19that we might never
27:20fully solve.
27:22But since this mummy
27:23was found
27:24in an elite tomb,
27:25it's possible
27:26that being a giant
27:28didn't have a social stigma
27:29attached to it
27:30at the time.
27:31Maybe he was,
27:32in fact,
27:33seen as special.
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