The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-20
Ohio Giants Who May Have Lived Be
fore Adam.

of the Galveston News is correctly in
formed, the scientific world has a find
that should prove of the intensest in
terest to archaeologists all over the
country. According to the report there
has just been unearthed the skeleton
of a prehistoric man whose contour
and physical peculiarities will do much
to strengthen the faith of those per-
sons who cling to the orinion that the
earth was peopled with human beings
before the advent of Adam and the
Garden of Eden. The frame is of he
roic proportions and the head of a size
never approached by even the greatest
giants within the memory of man.
The discovery was made within half
a mile of Miamisburg, in the Miami
valley, the location of many earlier ev-
licences of the existence and works OF
the mound builders. Two men were
digging gravel in pit at point a
short distance away from the town.
They were Edward w. Gebhart and
Edward Kaufman. They had been
working away for some time, when the
pick of Gebhart encountered resist
ance. and in investigating the cause of
the obstruction the workmen disclosed
the skull of a human being. Further
digging developed the fact that the To-
cation of the gravel pit was the bu-
rial place of a man of a size unheard
of in this generation. Proceeding care
which was found to comprise the
framework of a man almost complete
in every detail.
Contrary to the usual custom, the
body had not been inferred in a re-
| clinino position. The skeleton occupied
| an upright posture, with the knees
doubled up and the skull dropping be-
tween them. The face must have been
angular very angular. Its outline in
| this respect resembles that of a gor-
| lila, the similarity being striking. The
| jawbones are intact and show that
| their possessor was patterned in the
| most powerful fashion. The teeth are
| models of strength and beauty of form.
| DR.. Harlan. a dentist of Miamisburg,
| examined the teeth and declared them
| to be as fine specimens as any he had
ever seen. Other doctors-Messrs.
| Blossom, Weaver, Bookwalter and Shu-
ler-have also examined the teeth and
the skeleton. They have agreed that
the man must have lived thousands of
years before the time of Adam, the
supposedly first man, and further that
he must have been one of the mound
| builders, relics of whose presence in
the Miami valley have not been lack
ing.
1t is the opinion of he scientists who
have carefully inspected the skull that
the man must have been a vegetarian,
| a root eater, as the teeth would not
have been found in such perfect condi-
ton after the lapse of centuries had
their owner been masticator of meats.
The mo1ars appear to be fit for as
much usage to-day as thew were in
the dim past The orbtal plates are
strongly marked and the whole appear
ance of the skull is of the oldest
The body was not the only relic of
interest to those engaged in scientific
research found in the pit. A small fiat
stone about three inches long and
opening. 1t lay within a. few inches of
the skull of the prehistoric man, as
the local examiners insist the find
should be termed. Through one end
of the stone had been drilled a small
hole, possibly intended to be used as
an opening for the fitting in of han
die. II is pointed out by those who
| have had their theory of the species
| of the discovery questioned that the
stone, so evidently the work of human
! hands, clearly indicates that the skel-
| eton was that of man and not of a
| mammoth monkey.
The bones have been placed on exhi-
! hilton and many are the curious sight
| seers who have passed in wonder be-
| fore them. 1t is claimed by residents
| Of the Miami valley that a prehistoric
| race once inhabited that region and
| erected the largest mound in the coun-
| try. leaving as evidences of their pres
| and pieces of woven cloth made Of
| bark. Those who hold to the belief of
| a race of prehistoric beings think that
| the man whose bones have been eX-
| humed must have fiourished long be-
fore the ppriod of the flood