1856 - Giant skeleton uncovered in an Italian coal mine?

 

CLAIM: An 11’6” human skeleton was uncovered from an Italian coal mine. (Hovind, 2003, 50:10)

RESPONSE: The earliest this story surfaces in the creation-evolution literature appears to be in Carl Baugh's 1987 Dinosaur (insert page number), where the sketch above (Baugh claims that it is a photograph) appears with the caption "A miner fell through a hole in a mine in Italy and found this 11'6" skeleton". It is also reproduced in the 1991 second edition of Dinosaur and is available from the Internet Archive. (Plate B) No mine name, date, journal, or museum is supplied. Baugh would later state that he had received the image and story from fellow creationist Clifford Burdick, but did not have any documentation to confirm anything beyond Burdick's verbal anecdote regarding the skeleton. Kent Hovind would later display it as well (adding that the skeleton was supposed to have been uncovered in 1856), but that was as far as the story went. As Edward Babinski noted when he attempted to track down the history of the skeleton:

"Having struck my curiosity with his indistinct "photo"...I phoned Carl Baugh...He said he obtained the picture from another creationist, Clifford Burdick. Baugh was visiting Burdick's home one day and Burdick told Baugh, "You want this?" (meaning, the picture in question) and added the little story that it was of a skeleton found in a mine in Italy in the "19th century," i.e., in the 1800s. No more verification was apparently asked for or added by Burdick, who died soon after turning over the picture to Baugh. So, the story begins and ends with Burdick and with what Baugh says Burdick said, which is precious little in the way of corroboration...after my phone call with Baugh, I checked every article Clifford Burdick had published in the Creation Research Society Quarterly, trying to dig up some precise information on the origin of the picture of the 11' 6" skeleton...And I found nothing...I could not find any mention of the record breaking 11' 6" skeleton in any of Burdick's books that I consulted at Bob Jones, nor in any of Burdick's articles in the Creation Research Society Quarterly, all of which I checked scrupulously, issue by issue. So, Burdick himself did not think highly enough of the picture to publicize it in the least (perhaps it was just sent to Burdick in the mail by another creationist who photographed the original print or artist's creation, thinking it odd, but without really noticing Its (sic.) source, or what it represented). So, even Burdick felt it was not worth publicizing such an indistinct picture of unknown origin. Burdick handed it to Baugh as a trifle, saying "You want this?" But Baugh and Hovind have to explain it first! Doesn't it seem strange to either Baugh or Hovind that they are both acting more rashly than Burdick, who didn't even discuss the picture...in his creationist publications? (1996)

No 19th-century Italian newspaper, scientific journal, or mining report mentions a human skeleton eleven-and-a-half feet tall, with searches of Italian archival newspapers, the Biblioteca Nazionale digitized catalogue and JSTOR geological literature returning silent on any such discovery. The only genuine coal-mine skeleton ever reported from Italy in mainstream sources is Oreopithecus bambolii, a four-foot Miocene ape recovered from the Baccinello lignite mine in Tuscany. Contemporary coverage dubbed it "the coal man", but its height and non-human nature are explicit. (TIME, 1958) While no confirmation exists, this could have served as the seed for Burdick's information, with later storytellers confusing or re-imagining the report through the sketch/picture given to Baugh. Later sources seem to confirm this, with Hovind plucking the "1856" date seemingly out of thin air, and a 2012 article discussing the Italian find citing sources that only reference giants supposedly found throughout the United States in the 1930s. (Seguin, 2012)

CONCLUSION

Every reference to an 11' 6" skeleton said to have been found in an Italian coal mine in the 1850s traces back to a single unattributed image promoted by Carl Baugh in 1987 and later used by Kent Hovind in his presentations. No contemporary Italian, geological, or medical source corroborates the story, and the only real skeleton found in an Italian coal mine that could be found was a Miocene ape found in 1958, and not a giant human. Since there's no evidence for this claim, this case should not be regarded as a good argument for either a giant race of humans or young-Earth creationism.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Babinski, E. T. (1996) Men Over Ten Feet Tall? Cretinism or Evilution?, 3. 

Baugh, C. E. & Wilson, C. (1987) Dinosaur: Scientific Evidence That Dinosaurs and Men Walked Together. Promise Publishing, Inc.

Baugh, C. E. & Wilson, C. (1991) Dinosaur: Scientific Evidence That Dinosaurs and Men Walked Together (2nd. Ed.). Promise Publishing Co.

Seguin, X. (2012, February 27) The Ancient Giants. Eden Saga.

TIME (1958, August 18) Science: The Coal Man.