Overview
- Bible-focused groups revived interest in Papyrus Anastasi I after highlighting a passage that describes Shosu people as “four cubits or five cubits” tall, roughly 6'8" to 8'6".
- The document is a letter by the scribe Hori to Amenemope that describes a hazardous mountain pass, dates to the New Kingdom, and has been in the British Museum since 1839.
- Advocates cite the papyrus alongside Egypt’s Execration Texts and Kadesh reliefs as possible extra-biblical parallels to Old Testament accounts of the Nephilim and Anakim.
- Mainstream scholars interpret the text as satirical or instructional and note the Shosu were a nomadic Levantine group, with no physical evidence supporting literal giants.
- New reactions from apologist Wesley Huff and Egyptologist Peter J. Brand call the viral claims sensationalism and emphasize that no new archaeological data has surfaced.