Archaeology & History

Giant skeleton from ancient Rome discovered

By T.K. Randall
November 11, 2012 ·  17 comments

Image Credit: Matthias Kabel At a time when the average height for a man was around five and a half feet, the six foot eight giant would have towered above everyone else. The discovery is particularly rare because the condition itself only affects three out of every million people. Suspicions were first aroused when the remains were found within an unusually long tomb, scientists later confirmed the diagnosis by examining skull damage caused by a pituitary tumor which would have been responsible for the abnormal growth.

It isn't clear how this individual would have been perceived by others when he was alive. "You can't just study the disease, you have to look at the wider impact of how people functioned in society, and whether they were treated any differently," said bioarchaeologist Charlotte Roberts. "We know nothing about the role or presence of giants in the Roman world."[!gad]At a time when the average height for a man was around five and a half feet, the six foot eight giant would have towered above everyone else. The discovery is particularly rare because the condition itself only affects three out of every million people. Suspicions were first aroused when the remains were found within an unusually long tomb, scientists later confirmed the diagnosis by examining skull damage caused by a pituitary tumor which would have been responsible for the abnormal growth.

It isn't clear how this individual would have been perceived by others when he was alive. "You can't just study the disease, you have to look at the wider impact of how people functioned in society, and whether they were treated any differently," said bioarchaeologist Charlotte Roberts. "We know nothing about the role or presence of giants in the Roman world."

Source: National Geographic | Comments (17)

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