Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

For some researchers, the study of creatures such as wildmen comes under the heading of a genuine branch of science called cryptozoology. Cryptozoology, a term coined by the French zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans, refers to the scientific investigation of species whose existence has been reported but not fully documented. The Greek word kryptos means “hidden,” so cryptozoology literally means “the study of hidden animals.” There exists an International Society of Cryptozoology, the board of directors of which includes professional biologists, zoologists, and paleontologists from universities and museums around the world. The purpose of the society, as stated in its journal Cryptozoology, is “the investigation, analysis, publication, and discussion of all matters related to animals of unexpected form or size, or unexpected occurrence in time or space.” A typical issue of Cryptozoology usually contains one or more articles by scientists on the topic of wildmen.

Is it really possible that there could be an unknown species of hominid on this planet? Many will find this hard to believe for two reasons. They suppose that every inch of the earth has been quite thoroughly explored. And they also suppose that scientists possess a complete inventory of the earth’s living animal species. Both suppositions are incorrect.

First, even in countries such as the United States, there remain vast unpopulated and little-traveled areas. In particular, the northwestern United States still has large regions of densely forested, mountainous terrain which, although mapped from the air, are rarely penetrated by humans on the ground.

Second, a surprising number of new species of animals are still being found each year—about 5,000 according to a conservative estimate (Heuvelmans 1983, pp. 19–20). As might be suspected, the great majority of these, some 4,000, are insects. Yet Heuvelmans (1983, p. 21) noted: “Quite recently, in the mid 1970’s, there were discovered each year, around 112 new species of fish, 18 new species of reptiles, about ten new species of amphibians, the same number of mammals, and 3 or 4 new species of birds.”

Most of the mammals were small, and this might lead one to doubt that a large mammal, such as a wildman, might someday enter the list of living species. But the twentieth century has seen the discovery of many large species, some “known from native reports which were initially disbelieved” (Shackley 1983, p. 166).

The largest of the bears, the Kodiak bear, was unknown to science until 1899. The largest rhinoceros, Cotton’s white rhino, was discovered in 1900. The mountain gorilla, the largest member of the ape family, turned up in 1901. The largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, was first captured in 1912. In 1975, the largest known peccary, or wild hog, Catagonus wagneri, was discovered in Paraguay. This animal was previously known only by Pleistocene fossils (Wetzel et al. 1975; Heuvelmans 1983, p. 12). In 1976, a large and entirely new species of shark, 4.5 meters (almost 15 feet) long and weighing over 700 kilograms (over 1,500 pounds), was caught by a U.S. Navy ship in the ocean waters off Hawaii (L. Taylor et al. 1983). So it is not completely outside the realm of possibility that science might someday come to fully accept the existence of wildmen, which may prove to be previously unknown types of hominids or primates, or surviving representatives of fossil hominids such as the australopithecines, Homo erectus, or the Neanderthals. It would not be the first time that science has found examples of “living fossils.”

10.3 European Wildmen

Many art objects of the Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, and Etruscans bear images of semi-human creatures resembling wildmen. For example, in the Museum of Prehistory in Rome, there is an Etruscan silver bowl on which may be seen, among human hunters on horses, the figure of a large, ape-man-like creature (Wendt 1972, p. 15). Such imagery is, of course, subject to varying interpretations. The Russian scientist Boris Porshnev believed the humanlike creatures represented survivals of prehuman hominids. But British anthropologist Myra Shackley, who said wildmen may in fact exist in some parts of the world, asserted that the figures on classical Graeco-Roman art objects represent purely mythological beings such as satyrs (1983, pp. 18–19).