Misplaced Pages

#954045

85-403: In Sumba (Indonesia), dolmens are still commonly built (about 100 dolmens each year) for collective graves according to lineage. The traditional village of Wainyapu has some 1,400 dolmens. The word dolmen entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne used it to describe megalithic tombs in his Origines gauloises (1796) using the spelling dolmin (the current spelling

170-443: A channel, until they reached the village of Akkrum , where they had an argument and each went his own way, thus splitting the channel into two separate waterways. Others threw up hills, or became hills themselves when they died on the spot. In several legends, giants were evil beings that threatened, robbed and killed travellers or locals; such as Ellert and Brammert , in the province of Drenthe . Medieval chivalry romances such as

255-667: A conflict with the Olympian gods called the Gigantomachy (Γιγαντομαχία) when Gaia had them attack Mount Olympus . This battle was eventually settled when the hero Heracles decided to help the Olympians. The Greeks believed some of them, like Enceladus , to lie buried from that time under the earth and that their tormented quivers resulted in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions . Herodotus in Book 1, Chapter 68, describes how

340-405: A danger of making the giants trip and die, so they offered sacrifices to that plant. There are tales of giants in the northern Chilean port town of Caldera telling of giants who play with ships moving them from one port to another. Tales of the same area also tells of giants who are able to crush humans with their feet and when laying down to sleep being so long as to reach from the mountains to

425-540: A dominant clan from which a “king” ( raja ) is chosen, who yields a real political power. Thus West Sumba is more ethnically and linguistically diverse. Both systems exist simultaneously with a 3-tier class system (aristocracy, common people and slaves) assimilated in such a way that - paradoxically - it does not impair the egalitarian functioning of the Western segmentary societies. Villages almost always include members of several clans, because at each generation many of

510-560: A local myth has a local hill resembling a giant named as The Sleeping Giant . Folklore says the giant will awaken only if a specific musical instrument is played near the hill. Giants are also prominent in Welsh folklore . Many giants in English folklore were noted for their stupidity. A giant who had quarrelled with the Mayor of Shrewsbury went to bury the city with dirt; however, he met

595-429: A man and a woman, were traversing the fjord near Drangey Island with their cow when they were surprised by the bright rays of daybreak. As a result of exposure to daylight, all three were turned into stone. Drangey represents the cow and Kerling (supposedly the female giant, the name means "old hag") is to the south of it. Karl (the male giant) was to the north of the island, but he disappeared long ago. A bergrisi –

680-640: A passage of his Genealogies of the Pagan Gods to purported archeological discoveries in Sicily that he thought might be evidence of the historicity of The Odyssey 's Polyphemus . Rabelais created a wholly "fabricated giantology" for his 16th-century Gargantua and Pantagruel . Massive bones found in 1613 in France were initially assigned to Teutobochus but the examinations of them by various physicians and their publication of diverging conclusions about

765-520: A race of giant men created in one of the previous solar eras . They are credited with the construction of Teotihuacan . Giants are rough but generally righteous characters of formidable strength living in the hills of the Basque Country . Giants stand for the Basque people reluctant to convert to Christianity who decide to stick to the old lifestyle and customs in the forest. Sometimes they hold

850-599: A second part such as de l'alarb ('of the Arab'), del/de moro/s ('of the Moor/s'), del lladre ('of the thief'), del dimoni ('of the devil'), d'en Rotllà/Rotllan/Rotlan/Roldan ('of Roland '),. In the Basque Country , they are attributed to the jentilak , a race of giants. The etymology of the German : Hünenbett, Hünengrab and Dutch : hunebed – with Hüne / hune meaning 'giant' – all evoke

935-636: A shoemaker, carrying shoes to repair, and the shoemaker convinced the giant that he had worn out all the shoes coming from Shrewsbury , and so it was too far to travel. Other English stories told of how giants threw stones at each other, which was used to explain many great stones on the landscape. Giants figure in folklore and fairy tales, such as Jack the Giant Killer , The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body , Nix Nought Nothing , Robin Hood and

SECTION 10

#1732787258955

1020-444: A statue of Jupiter, typically on horseback, defeating or trampling down a giant, often depicted as a snake. They are restricted to the area of south-western Germany, western Switzerland, French Jura, and Alsace. In folklore from all over Europe, giants were believed to have built the remains of previous civilizations. The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus thought giants had a hand in the creation of megalithic monuments. Similarly,

1105-471: A variety of names in other languages, including Galician and Portuguese : anta , Bulgarian : Долмени , romanized :  Dolmeni , German : Hünengrab/Hünenbett , Afrikaans and Dutch : hunebed , Basque : trikuharri , Abkhaz : Adamra , Adyghe : Ispun Danish and Norwegian : dysse , Swedish : dös , Korean : 고인돌 , romanized :  goindol (go-in = 'propped' + dol = 'stone') , and Hebrew : גַלעֵד . Granja

1190-639: Is an Indonesian island (part of the Lesser Sunda Archipelago group) located in the Eastern Indonesia and administratively part of the East Nusa Tenggara provincial territory. Sumba has an area of 11,243.78 square kilometres (4,341.25 square miles), about the same size as Jamaica or Hawaii (Island) . The population was 686,113 at the 2010 Census and 779,049 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as of mid-2023

1275-503: Is famous for ikat textiles , particularly very detailed hand-woven ikat . The process of dyeing and weaving ikat is labor-intensive and one piece can take months to prepare. Ikat from West Sumba is notably different to that produced in the East: its only designs are geometric motifs and it usually includes a part that imitates a reticulated python skin. Sumba is one of the poorer islands of Indonesia. A relatively high percentage of

1360-604: Is first attested in 1297 from Robert of Gloucester 's chronicle. It is derived from the Gigantes ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Γίγαντες ) of Greek mythology . Fairy tales such as Jack the Giant Killer have formed the modern perception of giants as dimwitted and violent ogres , sometimes said to eat humans, while other giants tend to eat livestock. In more recent portrayals, like those of Jonathan Swift and Roald Dahl , some giants are both intelligent and friendly. Giants appear many times in folklore and myths. Representing

1445-552: Is home to 24 ethnic groups who speak nine Austronesian languages , some of these including several dialects. The largest language group is the Kambera language , spoken by a quarter of a million people in the eastern half of Sumba. Twenty-five to thirty percent of the population practices the animist Marapu religion. The remainder are Christian , a majority being Dutch Calvinist with a substantial minority being Roman Catholic . A small number of Sunni Muslims can be found along

1530-659: Is in the Wallacea region, having a mixture of plants and animals of Asian and Australasian origin. Due to its distinctive flora and fauna, Sumba has been categorised by the World Wildlife Fund as the Sumba deciduous forests ecoregion . There are a number of mammals, but the island is particularly rich in bird-life with nearly 200 birds, of which seven endemic species and a number of others are found only here and on some nearby islands. The endemic birds include

1615-580: Is ongoing due to the growing population of the island and this represents a threat to the birds. In 1998 two national parks were designated on the island for the protection of endangered species: the Laiwangi Wanggameti National Park and Manupeu Tanah Daru National Park . Sumba is part of the East Nusa Tenggara Province, and there is no single administrative body at the island level. The island and

1700-710: Is the Bodo Hula Biomass Power Plant (PLTBm), West Sumba. 1 MW capacity. Other existing renewable electricity projects involve solar PV and micro-hydroelectricity. NIHI Sumba has been ranked as one of the world's five best eco-hotels and was awarded the world's best hotel of 2016 and 2017 from Travel + Leisure for its native ambiance and authentic local experience. Giant (mythology) In folklore , giants (from Ancient Greek : gigas , cognate giga- ) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word giant

1785-460: Is under increasing threat of extinction. Indiscriminate deforestation is threatening their survival. The population is estimated at less than 4,000 with an average density of six individuals per square kilometre. A hornbill can fly to and from over an area of up to 100 square kilometres. Most of the original forest has been cleared for the planting of maize , cassava , and other crops so only small isolated patches remain. Furthermore, this clearance

SECTION 20

#1732787258955

1870-540: Is used in Portugal , Galicia , and some parts of Spain . The rarer forms anta and ganda also appear. In Catalan-speaking areas , they are known simply as dolmen , but also by a variety of folk names, including cova ('cave'), caixa ('crate' or 'coffin'), taula ('table'), arca ('chest'), cabana ('hut'), barraca ('hut'), llosa ('slab'), llosa de jaça ('pallet slab'), roca ('rock') or pedra ('stone'), usually combined with

1955-647: The Golan Heights , Jordan , Lebanon , Syria , and southeast Turkey . Dolmens in the Levant belong to a different, unrelated tradition to that of Europe, although they are often treated "as part of a trans-regional phenomenon that spanned the Taurus Mountains to the Arabian Peninsula ." In the Levant, they are of Early Bronze rather than Late Neolithic age. They are mostly found along

2040-553: The Gondwana southern hemisphere supercontinent, recent research suggests that the island might have detached from the South East Asia margin. Most of it was originally covered in deciduous monsoon forest while the south-facing slopes, which remain moist during the dry season, were evergreen rainforest . The northern part of the island is extremely arid; the soils have been depleted from deforestation and erosion. Sumba

2125-496: The Hindu reckoning of time. According to Jainism , there was a time when giants walked upon this earth. Jain cosmology divides the worldly cycle of time into two parts or half-cycles, avasarpani (age of descending purity) and ascending ( utsarpani ). According to Jain texts , the height of Rishabhanatha , first tirthankara of the present half-cycle of time ( avasarpani ) was 500 dhanusa (longbow). In avasarpani , as

2210-603: The OED describes its origin as "Modern French". A book on Cornish antiquities from 1754 said that the current term in the Cornish language for a cromlech was tolmen ('hole of stone') and the OED says that "There is reason to think that this was the term inexactly reproduced by Latour d'Auvergne [sic] as dolmen , and misapplied by him and succeeding French archaeologists to the cromlech ". Nonetheless it has now replaced cromlech as

2295-573: The Old English poem The Seafarer speaks of the high stone walls that were the work of giants. Natural geologic features such as the massive basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway on the coast of Northern Ireland were attributed to construction by giants. In the Netherlands, giants are often associated with creating or forming the landscape. For instance, two giants are said to have dug

2380-668: The Septuagint , the 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and the 2nd–1st-centuries BCE Dead Sea Scrolls give Goliath's height as four cubits and one span (possibly 216–258 centimetres (7 ft 1 in – 8 ft 6 in)). For comparison, the Anakites are described as making the Israelites seem like grasshoppers. See also Gibborim . Josephus also described the Amorites as giants in his Antiquities of

2465-716: The Sierra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains . After giving birth to a disfigured child, the giants treated the child so poorly that the Great Spirit responded by making the land hot and desolate and allowing enemies to conquer the giants. Only two giants survived: Paiute and his wife, both of whose skin became brown from eternally living in the hot desert. Several Jupiter-Giant-Columns have been found in Germania Superior . These were crowned with

2550-613: The Spartans uncovered in Tegea the body of Orestes , which was seven cubits long ⁠ ⁠—  approximately 3.73   m, or about 12   feet 3   inches. In his book The Comparison of Romulus with Theseus , Plutarch describes how the Athenians uncovered the body of Theseus , which was "of more than ordinary size." The kneecaps of Ajax were exactly the size of a discus for the boy's pentathlon , wrote Pausanias . A boy's discus

2635-583: The Titanomachy . The Hecatoncheires are giants that have 100 arms and 50 heads who were also the children of Gaia and Uranus. Other known giant races in Greek mythology include the six-armed Gegeines , the northern Hyperboreans , and the cannibalistic Laestrygonians . There are accounts stating humans grew to the size of giants during the Satya Yuga , the first of the four cyclical ages (yugas) in

Dolmen - Misplaced Pages Continue

2720-881: The American people with enthusiasm...Paul and his blue ox Babe are supposed to have altered the appearance of the American continent; the animal's hoof prints became the lake beds of the Northwest and from its drinking trough spilled the Mississippi River ." Fossilized remains of ancient mammals and reptiles common to the Sivalik Hills of India may have influenced aspects of the Mahābhārata that tell of battles in which "hundreds of mighty, and sometimes gigantic, heroes, horses, and war elephants are said to have died." Claudine Cohen , in her 2002 book The Fate of

2805-699: The Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, with about 40,000 to be found throughout the peninsula. In 2000, the dolmen groups of Jukrim-ri and Dosan-ri in Gochang , Hyosan-ri and Daesin-ri in Hwasun , and Bujeong-ri, Samgeori and Osang-ri in Ganghwa gained World Cultural Heritage status. (See Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites .) They are mainly distributed along the West Sea coastal area and on large rivers from

2890-568: The Hebrew Bible, but left untranslated in others. According to Genesis 7:23 , the Nephilim were destroyed in the Flood, but Nephilim are reported after the Flood, including: The Book of Numbers includes the discouraging report by the spies sent by Moses into Canaan : "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are. (...) All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw

2975-453: The Jews , circa 93   CE, indicating that some sort of fossils may have been on display at that time: "For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to

3060-586: The Jordan Rift Valley's eastern escarpment, and in the hills of the Galilee, in clusters near Early Bronze I proto-urban settlements (3700–3000 BCE), additionally restricted by geology to areas allowing the quarrying of slabs of megalithic size. In the Levant, geological constraints led to a local burial tradition with a variety of tomb forms, dolmens being one of them. Dolmens were built in Korea from

3145-858: The Liaoning region of China (the Liaodong Peninsula ) to Jeollanam-do . In North Korea, they are concentrated around the Taedong and Jaeryeong Rivers . In South Korea, they are found in dense concentrations in river basins, such as the Han and Nakdong Rivers , and in the west coast area ( Boryeong in South Chungcheong Province, Buan in North Jeolla Province, and Jeollanam-do. They are mainly found on sedimentary plains, where they are grouped in rows parallel to

3230-525: The Mammoth , argued that the history of human interaction with fossil bones of prehistoric megafauna was heavily influenced by giant lore. Per Cohen, the proto-scientific study of giants appears in several phases of human history: Herotodus reported that the remains of Orestes were found in Tegea ; Pliny described a giant's skeleton found in Crete after an earthquake, and seemed to refer to evolution as

3315-463: The Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." The Book of Joshua , describing the actual conquest of Canaan in a later generation, makes reference to such people living there in (Joshua 14:12–15 and Joshua 15:13–14). The Bible also tells of Gog and Magog , who later entered European folklore, and of

3400-687: The Spanish Amadís de Gaula feature giants as antagonists, or, rarely, as allies. This is parodied famously in Cervantes' Don Quixote , when the title character attacks a windmill, believing it to be a giant. This is the source of the phrase tilting at windmills . Tales of combat with giants were a common feature in the folklore of the British Isles . Celtic giants also figure in Breton and Arthurian romances . In Kinloch Rannoch ,

3485-538: The Sumba oral traditions as was written down by Umbu Pura Woha (2007) in his book Sejarah, Musyawarah dan Adat Istiadat Sumba Timur ( lit.   ' History, Deliberation and Customs of East Sumba ' ). The ruins of the historical civilization of the Sumba people dates back to the BC era; megalithic burials were found on the central regions of the island (Central Sumba) which go back to thousands of years ago. These stone-based burial traditions are still kept alive by

Dolmen - Misplaced Pages Continue

3570-422: The Sumba people and have become a 'living ancient tradition' that still can be observed by scholars in modern days. The megalithic remains found on Sumba Island include dolmen tombs, upright stones, megalithic statues, stone enclosures, and levelled terraces. The Sumba megalithic tradition itself was characterized by the old megaliths built and carved with high quality standards. Some ancient tools are also found on

3655-430: The absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have been found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating . However, it has been impossible to prove that these remains date from the time when the stones were originally set in place. Early in the 20th century, before the advent of scientific dating, it was proposed by Harold Peake that

3740-481: The bones kicked off a "pamphlet war" between anatomists and surgeons of the day. The discovery of the so-called Claverack Giant in colonial New York triggered giantological investigations by two important early American intellectuals, Cotton Mather and Edward Taylor . Genesis tells of the Nephilim before and after Noah's Flood . The word Nephilim is loosely translated as giants in some translations of

3825-446: The chief god, is the great-grandson of the jötunn Ymir . Norse mythology also holds that the entire world of men was created from the flesh of Ymir, a giant of cosmic proportions whose name is considered by some scholars to share a root with Yama of Indo-Iranian mythology. Trolls are beings that are sometimes very large. The name troll is applied to jötnar . An old Icelandic legend says that two night-prowling giants,

3910-400: The coastal areas. The younger generations seem to reject Marapu. This may be at least in part because the only functioning schools are Catholic and embracing that religion is required to attend school. Whatever the cause, the difference is significant compared to some other traditional places such as Waerebo , where the locals have a Christian first name and a traditional second name. Sumba

3995-499: The cycle moves ahead, height of all humans and animals decreases. The following table depicts the six aras of avasarpini – In Norse mythology , the jötnar (cognate with Old English : eotenas and English: ettin ) are often opposed to the gods. While often translated as "giants", most are described as being roughly human-sized. Some are portrayed as huge, such as some frost giants ( hrímþursar ), fire giants ( eldjötnar ), and mountain giants ( bergrisar ). The jötnar are

4080-478: The direction of the river or stream. Those found in hilly areas are grouped in the direction of the hill. Also called Muniyaras, these dolmens belong to the Iron Age . These dolmenoids were burial chambers made of four stones placed on edge and covered by a fifth stone called the cap stone. Some of these Dolmenoids contain several burial chambers, while others have a quadrangle scooped out in laterite and lined on

4165-576: The dolmens of western Europe were evidence of cultural diffusion from the eastern Mediterranean. This "prospector theory" surmised that Aegean-origin prospectors had moved westward in search of metal ores, starting before 2200 BCE, and had taken the concept of megalithic architecture with them. Dolmens can be found in the Levant , some along the Jordan Rift Valley ( Upper Galilee in Israel ,

4250-458: The endangered Sumba eclectus parrot , four vulnerable species — the secretive Sumba boobook owl, Sumba buttonquail , red-naped fruit-dove , and Sumba hornbill — as well as three more common species: the Sumba green pigeon , Sumba flycatcher , and apricot-breasted sunbird . Saltwater crocodiles can still be found in some areas. The Sumba hornbill or Julang Sumba ( Rhyticeros everetti )

4335-594: The famous battle between David and the Philistine Goliath . While Goliath is often portrayed as a giant in retellings of the Biblical narrative, he appears to be significantly smaller than other giants, biblical or otherwise. The Masoretic Text version of the Book of Samuel gives his height as six cubits and one span (possibly 313–372 centimetres (10 ft 3 in – 12 ft 2 in)), while

SECTION 50

#1732787258955

4420-705: The forests"), Sanson (variation of the biblical Samson ), Errolan (based on the Frankish army general Roland who fell dead at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass ) or even Tartalo (a one-eyed giant akin to the Greek Cyclops Polyphemus ). In Bulgarian mythology, giants called ispolini inhabited the Earth before modern humans. They lived in the mountains, fed on raw meat and often fought against dragons . Ispolini were afraid of blackberries which posed

4505-413: The giants he was the bravest and most famous, opponent of all who raised their hand to become absolute ruler over the giants and heroes." Mount Nemrut is known to have received its name from an Armenian tradition in which Nimrod was killed by an arrow shot by Hayk during a massive battle between two rival armies of giants to the south-east of Lake Van . Aztec mythology features the Quinametzin ,

4590-476: The hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men." The Book of Enoch describes giants as the offspring of Watchers and women in 7:2. Hayk was known as the founder of the Armenian state. Hayk was part of a race of giants who helped construct the Tower of Babel . Ancient historian Movses Khorenatsi wrote, "Hayk was handsome and personable, with curly hair, sparkling eyes and strong arms. Among

4675-450: The human body enlarged to the point of being monstrous, giants evoke terror and remind humans of their body's frailty and mortality. They are often portrayed as monsters and antagonists, but there are exceptions. Some giants intermingle with humans in a friendly way and can even be part of human families with their offspring being portrayed as regular humans where they are often referred to as half-giants . Folklorists and historians examine

4760-546: The image of giants buried ( bett / bed / grab = 'bed/grave') there. Of other Celtic languages , Welsh cromlech was borrowed into English and quoit is commonly used in English in Cornwall . It remains unclear when, why and by whom the earliest dolmens were made. The oldest known are found in Western Europe , dating from c. 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it. They are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite

4845-460: The island. But this too reflects the East / West difference: the Western segmentary societies built many more dolmens than the Eastern stratified societies; and dolmens in the east are larger, more richly ornated and are reserved to the royal clan. Waingapu , a Kodi village in the west of Sumba, has some 1,400 dolmens - one of the highest concentrations on the island. The Sumbanese have a mixture of Austronesian and Melanesian ancestry. Sumba

4930-430: The island. Notable findings are quadrangular adzes unearthed in the Anakalang area (a cultural region of Anakalang Sumba, a subethnic group of Sumba people). One significant archaeological discovery was that of the urn burial site in Melolo in the 1920s, dated around 2,870 BCE . Around the 12th century, the kingdom of Singhasari in eastern Java gained more power over the maritime Southeast Asian territory after

5015-418: The kingdom defeated the Mongols ; since then, this kingdom evolved into the empire known as Majapahit . Sumba Island was a subject of Majapahit's dominion, and the word " Sumba " itself was first officially used during the Majapahit era (mentioned in the ancient Javanese manuscripts of Pararaton and Sumpah Palapa oath of Gajah Mada ); the word itself was thought as the closest substitution in Javanese for

5100-462: The left side of river Pambar as is evident from the usage of neatly dressed granite slabs for the dolmens. At least one of them has a perfectly circular hole of 28 cm diameter inside the underground chamber. This region has several types of dolmens. Large number of them are overground with about 70–90 cm height. Another type has a height 140–170 cm. There is an overground dolmen with double length up to 350 cm. Fragments of burial urns are also available in

5185-453: The mouth of the Kambaniru River , with a population of 71,752 (including the adjoining district of Kambera) in mid 2023. The landscape is low, limestone hills, rather than the steep volcanoes of many Indonesian islands. There is a dry season from May to November and a rainy season from December to April. The western side of the island is more fertile and more heavily populated than the east. Although generally thought to be originally part of

SECTION 60

#1732787258955

5270-443: The native Sumba came into contact with the Europeans (Portuguese) who arrived on the island by ships to exploit the natural resources of the island. Later, it also attracted the Dutch VOC to come in the region in circa 1600s era. Historically, sandalwood was the main commodity exported to Europe from this island, thus the Sumba Island back then colloquially also known as the Sandalwood Island or Sandel Island (in English). As

5355-432: The native name of the island according to native Sumba people, which is Humba or Hubba . The Javanese people was predicted to arrived on the Sumba Island via the Madura and Kangean route, it was examined through the analysis on the DNA of chicken species on Sumba that are naturally only endemic to the eastern regions of Java and its neighbouring islands (which in these case, most probably Kangean Island). In 1522 ,

5440-451: The origin of most of various monsters in Norse mythology (e.g. the Fenrisulfr ) and in the eventual battle of Ragnarök , the giants will storm Asgard and fight the gods until the world is destroyed. Even so, the gods themselves were related to the jötnar by many marriages and descent; there are also jötnar such as Ægir who have good relationships with the gods and bear little difference in status to them. Odin , often regarded as

5525-400: The population suffers from malaria , although the illness is almost eradicated in the western part of the island. Infant mortality is high. Access to water is one of the major challenges in Sumba. During the dry season, many streams dry out and villagers depend on wells for scarce supplies of water. Villagers have to travel several kilometres several times a day to fetch water. It is mainly

5610-424: The princess of Tololo Pampa. If a person manages to watch the giant while he works folklore says the person will be blessed with good luck for the rest of their life. In Greek mythology , the Gigantes (γίγαντες) were (according to the poet Hesiod ) the children of Uranus (Ουρανός) and Gaia (Γαία) (spirits of the sky and the earth) where some depictions had them with snake-like legs. They were involved in

5695-406: The process by which giants become human-size over time; and Saint Augustine mentions what is believed to have been the fossilized molar of an ancient Elephantidae in his City of God , in a passage reflecting on the nature and meaning of the Noahacian deluge. The academic consideration of giants continued through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and even the early modern period. Boccaccio devoted

5780-550: The provincial population in 2023. The regencies are listed below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census and the 2020 Census, together with the official estimates as at mid 2023. The provincial capital is not on Sumba Island, but in Kupang on West Timor . Religion in Sumba (2023) The west part of Sumba is inhabited by segmentary societies made of clans and of politically autonomous villages, while Sumba North and East are occupied by stratified societies (based on castes ) made of clan confederations and led by

5865-541: The region near the dolmens. This indicates that the dolmens with 70–90 cm height were used for burial of the remains of people of high social status. Burial urns were used for the burial of the remains of commoners. The dolmens with raised roofs might have been used for habitation of people. Why some people lived in the cemeteries has not been satisfactorily explained. Sumba Sumba ( Petjo : Soemba-eiland ; Indonesian : pulau Sumba ), natively also spelt as Humba , Hubba , Suba , or Zuba (in Sumba languages )

5950-407: The role giants are assigned in regional geomythologies . For example, Fionn mac Cumhaill is said to have built the Giant's Causeway on the island of Ireland . Per a 1965 examination in an American studies journal, "It is generally admitted today that Paul Bunyan was a synthetic figure conceived by advertising men rather than the spontaneous product of the folk mind, yet he has been adopted by

6035-423: The sea. In some stories the giants are black humanoids or black bulls. In southern Chile there are stories of giants said to belong to certain volcanoes such as Calbuco and Osorno . The mythical city of Tololo Pampa in northern Chile is said to be guarded by a giant known by various names including; Pata Larga , Gigante Minero and Minero Gigante . The giant enters to the mountains to obtain riches to

6120-725: The secret of ancient techniques and wisdom unknown to the Christians, like in the legend of San Martin Txiki , while their most outstanding feature is their strength. It follows that in many legends all over the Basque territory the giants are held accountable for the creation of many stone formations, hills and ages-old megalithic structures ( dolmens , etc.), with similar explanations provided in different spots. However, giants show different variants and forms, they are most frequently referred to as jentilak and mairuak , while as individuals they can be represented as Basajaun ("the lord of

6205-509: The sides with granite slabs. These are also covered with cap stones. Dozens of Dolmens around the area of old Siva temple (Thenkasinathan Temple) at Kovilkadavu on the banks of the River Pambar and also around the area called Pius nagar, and rock paintings on the south-western slope of the plateau overlooking the river have attracted visitors. Apart from the dolmens of Stone Age, several dolmens of Iron Age exist in this region especially on

6290-640: The tale of Inya Nyale (a mermaid-like creature who used to live on land but then moved to the ocean), considered as a sacred figure in Sumbanese mythology. The letter ' h ' in later time (around  12th century ) replaced by ' s ' due to the mass migration of  Javanese people  from the island of  Java , because the word  humba  sounds so similar to the  Javanese word of ꦲꦸꦩ꧀ꦧꦃ ( umbah , but written as humbah according to Javanese writing system ), meaning "to wash" or "to cleanse". According to Sumbanese historians, Sumba Island

6375-591: The time goes by, in 1866 , the island of Sumba was later transferred to and dominated by the following Dutch East Indies colonization power. The well-known Christianization of the natives of Sumba Island was started in 1886 by the Dutch under the Douwe Wielenga Jesuits missionary program in the district of Laura in West Sumba . The largest town on the island is the main port of Waingapu near

6460-592: The traditional protector of southwestern Iceland – appears as a supporter on the coat of arms of Iceland . According to Northern Paiute oral history, the Si-Te-Cah or Sai'i are a legendary tribe of red-haired cannibalistic giants, the remains of which were allegedly found in 1911 by guano miners in Nevada's Lovelock Cave . Furthermore, the Paiute creation story tells of "beautiful giants" who once lived between

6545-485: The usual English term in archaeology, when the more technical and descriptive alternatives are not used. The later Cornish term was quoit – an English-language word for an object with a hole through the middle preserving the original Cornish language term of tolmen – the name of another dolmen-like monument is in fact Mên-an-Tol 'stone with hole' (Standard Written Form: Men An Toll .) In Irish Gaelic , dolmens are called Irish : dolmain . Dolmens are known by

6630-416: The very small offshore islands administered with it are split into four regencies (local government regions), following re-organisation on 2 January 2007 when two new regencies were created from parts of West Sumba Regency. The four regencies are Sumba Barat (West Sumba), Sumba Barat Daya (Southwest Sumba), Sumba Tengah (Central Sumba) and Sumba Timur (East Sumba), which together accounted for 14.7% of

6715-671: The women and children who are sent for water, while the men are at work. The Sumba Foundation has been active in raising sponsorship to drill wells in villages and attempting to reduce poverty on the island. As of February 2013, the Sumba Foundation was responsible for 48 wells and 191 water stations, supplying 15 schools with water and sanitation, and reducing malaria rates by some 85%. Electricity mainly comes from diesel generators. New projects include 3 MW Bayu wind power plant (PLTB) in Kadumbul, East Sumba by PT Hywind. Another

6800-425: The youngest ones settle in villages other than the one they originated from - which may belong to an allied clan and not their own original clan and lineage. As of 2021, Sumba is the last place on Earth where societies have remained close to the traditions of South-East Asian hill tribes and still build megalithic monuments such as dolmens for collective burials: more 100 megalithic tombs are still built each year on

6885-672: Was 820,506 (comprising 420,291 males and 400,215 females). To the northwest of Sumba is Sumbawa , to the northeast, across the Sumba Strait (Selat Sumba), is Flores , to the east, across the Savu Sea , is Timor , and to the south, across part of the Indian Ocean , is Australia . The name "Sumba" is derived from the native  Sumbanese  word humba  or  hubba (in various Subanese dialects), which means “original”, “native”, “indigenous” or “no interference”; this

6970-585: Was about 12 cm (4.7 in) in diameter, while a normal adult patella is around 5 cm (2.0 in), suggesting Ajax may have been nearly 14   feet (over 4   m) tall. The Cyclopes are also compared to giants due to their huge size (e.g.   Polyphemus , son of Poseidon and Thoosa and nemesis of Odysseus in Homer 's The Odyssey ). The Elder Cyclopes were the children of Gaia and Uranus, and later made Zeus ' "master thunderbolt", Poseidon's trident, and Hades ' "helm of darkness", during

7055-687: Was initially an  ethnonym  referring to the native inhabitants of this island who identified themselves as  tau Humba  or  tau Hubba ( lit.   ' native people ' or 'original people'), to differentiate themselves from foreigners (non-Sumbanese people) who gradually and continuously came to occupy the island. On the other hand, the Sumbanese cultural territory (including Sumba Island and its surrounding seas) are also known as  tana wai humba  or  tana wae hubba  (in Sumbanese languages), which means “our native land” or “the motherland of Sumba people”; these sentences appeared in ancient Sumbanese manuscripts that told

7140-567: Was introduced about a decade later and had become standard in French by about 1885). The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) does not mention dolmin in English and gives its first citation for dolmen from a book on Brittany in 1859, describing the word as "The French term, used by some English authors, for a cromlech ...". The name was supposedly derived from a Breton language term meaning ' stone table ' but doubt has been cast on this, and

7225-580: Was once connected to the neighbouring islands to the north, namely Flores and Sumbawa . Flores and Sumba were connected by the Kataka Lindiwatu (in Sumba languages), an ancient stone bridge built by the native of Sumba and Flores. Due to the high level of socialization around the Kataka Lindiwatu which connected both islands, civilization was thought to arise from around those regions (which nowadays correspond to northern Sumba and to part of East Sumba regency territory). This story belongs to

#954045