Latest news with #ancienthumans
Asharq Al-Awsat
27-05-2025
- Science
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Scientists Date the Oldest Known Tools Made from Whale Bones to 20,000 Years Ago
Scientists have pinpointed the oldest known evidence of humans making tools from whale bone. The bones, fashioned into narrow projectiles for hunting, had been uncovered in excavations dating back over a century in the Bay of Biscay near Spain and France. Scientists figured the tools were quite ancient, but many were small fragments so it was hard to determine their age. Technological advancements in the past decade have now made it possible to date the oldest of the tools to about 20,000 years ago. Scientists found that the bones came from blue whales, fin whales, sperm whales and other species, The AP news reported. 'Humans and whales have clearly been encountering one another for a long time,' said Vicki Szabo with Western Carolina University, who studies the history of whaling and was not involved with the latest research. Scientists think that ancient humans were crafting whale bone instruments in places including the Arctic and South Pacific. There's been solid evidence of whale bone tools dating back to about 5,000 years ago, but the new research published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications pushes the timeline back. Ancient humans weren't necessarily hunting whales, said study author Jean-Marc Petillon with the French National Centre for Scientific Research. More likely, they were scavenging the bodies of beached whales and fashioning their dense, heavy bones into tools to hunt reindeer or bison. The tools indicate that ancient people in the area took advantage of resources near the sea for survival. They likely also collected seashells and fished. Finding such evidence has been difficult as rising sea levels disrupt coastlines across the globe, scientists said. 'It's one more contribution to the importance of coastal environments for human groups, even in this long past," said Petillon.
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Joe Rogan makes wild claim about ancient race of giant humans living on Earth
Joe Rogan, who regularly entertains conspiracy theories and cover-ups, created one of his own when he declared that scientists 'would kill' anyone who tried to prove that giants were real. On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast with TikTok personality Cody Tucker, Rogan brought up the theory that there was once an ancient race of giant humans living on Earth. Rogan and Tucker discussed how civilizations throughout history have had similar stories of enormous people, citing biblical references like the story of David and Goliath. While the two men agreed that there could still be undiscovered races of humans, Rogan was skeptical that the scientific community would allow such a history-changing discovery to be made public. Rogan claimed that researchers who may potentially find giant human remains would be more inclined to say 'people can't handle this' and keep the information a secret. The podcast host added that the thought of hiding the discovery would be 'infuriating' and then made one more bombshell claim about the potential unearthing of giant bones. 'They're gonna kill you, they're gonna kill you. The scientists will kill you. They're gonna run you off the road,' Rogan exclaimed. The 57-year-old noted that there are already conspiracy theories claiming the Smithsonian Museum in Washington is hiding proof giants existed in their basement. Rogan has frequently commented on various government cover-ups he believes to be true. Those include the conspiracy to keep the existence of UFOs and alien life hidden, the secret existence of government surveillance programs, and even a cover-up to hide the government's role in instigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol. Tucker, known for his viral history and pop culture videos, questioned why these giants aren't still alive today. This led Rogan to speculate that giants in the distant past died out after a global cataclysm left them without enough food to survive. 'If you're that big, you need to eat a lot,' Rogan explained. 'They keep finding these additional types of humans,' Rogan added, noting that researchers had recently discovered Denisovans, an extinct group of humans, closely related to Neanderthals, who lived up to 200,000 years ago. Despite citing a number of recent findings, Rogan quickly shot down the idea that scientists would come clean about finding a new race of immense beings. 'Who would put the cap on that?' Rogan asked. 'If they found a 10-foot human with a gigantic sword, would they just say 'we're wrong, giants existed.'' 'They might say people can't handle it. It's not outside the realm of possibility,' Rogan added. Rogan is not alone in his unconfirmed belief that Earth was once home to giant humans in prehistoric times. TikTok theorists claim that giants, many times taller than a normal human, have existed since ancient times, likely helped to build pyramids around the world, and may still be walking among us today. As strange as it sounds, some scientists admit that there might be an element of truth to these claims. Giants, like the current world's tallest man Sultan Kosen who stands at 8 feet 1 inch (236.5cm), are a very real scientific phenomenon. Likewise, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an ancient culture that would have towered over their peers. The genetic traces of these huge people can still be found in the abnormal heights of groups scattered around the world. In a medical sense, giants are real because of a condition called gigantism. Certain diseases can cause abnormal growth, leading to extreme height in some people. People with giantism have existed throughout history right back to ancient times. Some Paleolithic groups also had heights which exceeded that of the modern people who discovered them. Rogan and Tucker also noted that Vikings from Iceland were also enormous compared to the people in nearby lands they raided hundreds of years ago. However, neither of these groups is a separate race from humans nor are their heights outside the bounds of human possibility. Scientists maintain that their height is either a product of a disease or fortunate genetics and good nutrition. Dr Pavel Grasgruber, an expert on the biology of height from Masaryk University, Czechia, told 'The idea that human giants existed in prehistoric times was mainly inspired by the findings of male skeletons in the Grimaldi cave system.' When these caves, located on the Mediterranean coast near the French-Italian border, were first excavated in the late 1880s, scientists were shocked by the size of the human remains they found. Seven of the 'Gravettian' people found there were about 5ft 11in on average but the tallest were up to 6ft 5in in height. 'The standard for male height in Europe was under 170cm! No wonder these people must have seemed like "giants" to the scientists of the time,' Dr Grasgruber said. Thanks to 'the work of people with vivid imaginations', these findings slowly became part of a myth that the world was once populated by giants.
