In 1889, the London newspaper Pall Mall Gazette published a sensational article about the discovery of gigantic human bones in neighboring France.
“A remarkable discovery has just been made in Vimoutiers, in the department of Orne, by a farmer living in the village of Cutesson. He was digging in his field when the ground suddenly gave way and he fell into a hole ten feet deep.
“The farmer had accidentally come across an underground chamber whose existence was not previously suspected. On investigation, a number of human bones, partly petrified, were found in an adjacent vault, built in the shape of a circle.
“The bones are of exceptionally large size and appear to have belonged to a breed of gigantic stature and great breadth of frame. In fact, those who have studied the case on the spot are of the opinion that the bodies must have been buried in this cemetery at a very remote period.
“Further research has been temporarily interrupted due to the subsidence of other plots. It does not seem at all unlikely that this accident will yield some very interesting discoveries.”
According to Paul Brown Unique discoveriesAt the end of the newspaper article it was stated that excavations at the site were eventually temporarily halted due to subsidence.
The story was immediately widely circulated and published in other British newspapers. This was written about in France itself; Of course, the world’s French press was simply not as read as the British press.
French newspapers in particular referred to these finds as “ossements humains d’une taille étonnante” (“human bones of astonishingly large size”), and they also pointed out some details not reported in British newspapers. For example, the underground chamber where the skeletons were located was so large that two farm horses fell into this hole.
An 18-meter (60-foot) tunnel was also described, leading from an underground chamber to another, even larger, underground chamber.
One of the articles about this discovery, written in the French newspaper La Petit Presse, ended with the following message: “We are pleased to offer archaeologists and antiquarians a new opportunity to demonstrate their insight and expand their specialized knowledge. The floor is open to scientists!”
But then there was a deafening silence. Not a single newspaper, French, British, or any other, wrote a single line about this sensational discovery. Researchers searched every possible newspaper archive of the time and later, but nowhere else was there any mention of gigantic human bones from Vimoutier.
But articles were published about similar finds of gigantic human bones, but in other places in France.
According to the London Globe, in June 1890 Monsieur Lapouge discovered fragments of human bones of “the most abnormal size” in a prehistoric cemetery at Castelnau, near Montpellier, in the south of France.
Lapouge calculated that the bones belonged to a man 3.3 meters tall (11 feet), that is, a true giant. It was also indicated that since ancient times the entire Castelnau Valley was called by the villagers the place where the “cave of the giants” is located.
![](https://anomalien.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Geant_de_castelnau.jpg)
Lapouge published an article and photos of his findings in the French journal La Nature. From there, the story of the ‘Giants of Castelnau’ found its way into many newspapers and magazines around the world, including the New York Times and Popular Science News.
And traditionally this was also the last mention in the press about these strange finds. Then no one wrote or mentioned them anymore.
In 1894, newspapers reported that workers excavating a reservoir in Montpellier had found “a set of human skulls of gigantic proportions” measuring 28, 31 and 32 inches in circumference. The circumference of an average adult male’s skull is 22.5 inches.
“These relics were sent to the Paris Academy and a scientist said that they belonged to a race of people from 10 to 15 feet in height,” the papers wrote.
This place seemed to be close to where Monsieur Lapouge was digging. In any case, this is the same area of Montpellier. Perhaps both bones are connected to the cave of the giants, about which the inhabitants of the Castelnau Valley formed legends?
As the reader can easily guess, there is currently no information about these skulls either. Did they end up at the Paris Academy and unknowingly remain hidden somewhere in the storage rooms? Or are they deliberately hidden from the eyes of all outsiders forever?