Environmental Graffiti

The National Geographic Society have been batting away a plethora of interest in their 5 year old hoax.

In 2002, an illustrator from Canada who goes by the screen name “IronKite”, submitted the photo of a giant’s skeleton to a Worth1000.com Photoshop conteston the theme of “Archaeological Anomalies”. This image was then transformed into an Internet urban legend surrounding the National Geographic Society’s discovery of the remains of giant humans in India. Fuelled by an incessant media interest the National Geographical Society still receives messages from around the globe asking whether the story is true.

The myth has been perpetuated as many media sources have added to, and elaborated on, the story. Although initially there wasn’t a story, just a photo, there is now a wide selection of tales about where the giant comes from. The religious connotations of such an image have increased this myth. India’s Hindu Voice monthly reported in March 2007 that,

“the team [which found the skeleton] also found tablets with inscriptions that suggest the giant belonged to a race of superhumans that are mentioned in the Mahabharata, a Hindu epic poem from about 200 B.C.”

Nothing like a large amount of Indian mysticism to add strength to a claim. IronKite said he’s tickled that the picture – which took only about an hour and a half to create – has generated so much Internet attention.

Today a renewed interest in the ‘Giant’ has ensued, and has created enough hype for the National Geographic Society to make a press release stating that the image is a hoax.

So be warned, never be taken in by a photo of a giant, it’s probably been created by some pesky wiz kid on a religious trip.

If you want to find out all the latest big skeleton news, why not subcribe to our RSS feed, we’ll even throw in a free album.