During an archaeological excavation in Sayre, Bradford County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s, a number of human skulls were unearthed. These skeletons were anatomically correct, except for the anomaly of their projections ― two distinct ‘horns’ two inches above the eyebrow, and the fact that their average height in life would have been around seven feet tall.
It was the late 1880s, a group of scientists was conducting a curious expedition through the Bradford County area of Pennsylvania, in northeastern part of the state near the New York state line.
An 1881 illustration of the town of Sayre in Pennsylvania by John Moray. The researchers’ group made a strange discovery here in this town area in the 1880s
The group, which included a Pennsylvania state historian, two professors and a member of the Presbyterian church’s hierarchy, had worked their way to a town called Sayre, where they became interested in a series of what appeared to be burial mounds.
Dr. P.G. Donehoo of the Presbyterian church and professors A.B. Skinner and W.K. Moorehead from the American Investigation Museum and Phillips Academy in Andover, respectively, led their group to the first of the mounds to begin a careful excavation. What they uncovered has puzzled science for nearly the next hundred years.
Painstakingly scraping away dirt and rocks, the expedition revealed several males’ skeletons. The burial date of these skeleltons was estimated at about AD 1200. So far, not unusual. But then they measured the remains and looked more closely at the structural details. It was then discovered that the males had been over seven feet tall ― all of them ― a height (in group) unheard of in the ancient times.
But strangest of all, close examinations of the skulls of the mystery men showed that they had horns ― two actual horns apiece ― that were an integral part of each skull. Impossible, but they were there. Seven foot giants with horned skulls who died nearly 800 years ago!
The skeletons were reported to be at or above 7 feet (2.1 meters) in height, possessing skulls that had horn-like protuberances just above the eyebrows
The excited scientists carefully wrapped the remains for shipping and sent them to the American Investigation Museum in Philadelphia for closer examination. At the facility, scientists puzzled over the mysterious skeletons for months.
The skulls were later claimed to have been either lost, or misplaced, or stolen from the museum. Neither Donehoo, nor Skinner, nor Moorehead ever described the discovery of any human skeletons at Sayre exhibiting gigantism or horned protrusions in their official excavation reports.
Moreover, news and articles about this strange discovery appeared in a number of journals and magazines and then somehow they disappeared from everything. The skulls were never heard of again, leaving behind the riddle that forever belongs to the ‘unsolved’.
