# Oral histories once deemed legend later believed based in fact **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802 "2004-10-29T05:07:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/1 "2004-10-29T05:07:18Z")
The discovery of Homo Floresiensis led to almost immediate speculation that they may have been the basis of the ubiquitous _little people_ myths in many cultures. When I heard about them today my first thought wasn’t “hobbit” but “Cool! [Menehune!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menehune)” It also has me trying to remember other oral histories and folktales that later were shown to have been rooted, at least to a degree in fact: TROY- the most famous, deemed a myth for more than a thousand years before Heinrich Schliemann unearthed the great city (almost) on the same site that was highly advanced, impregnably walled and met a sudden violent end about the same time as the best estimates for the legend. The not-long-ago-thought-mythical Arabian Nights treasure city of [Ubar](http://www.datadubai.com/rubart1.htm) may have been spotted by satellite photography. The DNA testing that proved the _Lemba_ tribe of South Africa is not only of Semitic origin (as they have always claimed) but has genes consistent with the men who trace their ancestry to the ancient Aaronic priesthood ([story](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2706israel.html) Australian aborigone Dreamtime (can anybody recommend a really good book on that, btw?) describes consistently with recent fossil finds animals (such as the [rainbow serpent](http://www.yowiehunters.com/New%20Crypto/Aus%20Fauna/Aus%20Fauna%20-%20Rainbow%20Serpent%202000%20(2).htm) ) that have been extinct for tens of thousands of years What are some of the other oral legends that new discoveries allow us to take with much less salt than once prescribed? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/2 "2004-10-29T05:13:24Z")
The discovery in 1961 of an ancient Viking settlement at [L’Anse aux Meadows](http://la.essortment.com/lanseauxmeado_rvvi.htm), Newfoundland, Canada, which confirmed Norse sagas. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/3 "2004-10-29T05:40:46Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The discovery of Homo Floresiensis led to almost immediate speculation that they may have been the basis of the ubiquitous _little people_ myths in many cultures. When I heard about them today my first thought wasn’t “hobbit” but “Cool! [Menehune!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menehune)” It also has me trying to remember other oral histories and folktales that later were shown to have been rooted, at least to a degree in fact: Just to be clear, this new species does NOT validate any folk tales. There is no way of knowing if folk tales about wildmen or little people originated because of _H. floresiensis_. > [@](#): > > The DNA testing that proved the _Lemba_ tribe of South Africa is not only of Semitic origin (as they have always claimed) but has genes consistent with the men who trace their ancestry to the ancient Aaronic priesthood ([story](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2706israel.html) Suggestive, but not definitive. > [@](#): > > What are some of the other oral legends that new discoveries allow us to take with much less salt than once prescribed? Jefferson (or some close male relative of his) having fathered children with Sally Hemmings. Recently published letters from Ronald Reagan exploding the myth that he didn’t have a keen grasp of the political issues of his time. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/4 "2004-10-29T05:59:36Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Just to be clear, this new species does NOT validate any folk tales. There is no way of knowing if folk tales about wildmen or little people originated because of _H. floresiensis_. I would think that the words “immediate speculation” rather than “conclusive proof” would rather make it clear that I am not stating anything has been validated. (Perhaps I have a higher opinion of most Dopers’ reading perception than some.) > [@John Mace](#): > > Recently published letters from Ronald Reagan exploding the myth that he didn’t have a keen grasp of the political issues of his time. Suggestive, but not definitive. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/5 "2004-10-29T06:30:00Z")
[Angkor Wat](http://www.angkorwat.org/) was thought to be a legend until it was discovered. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/6 "2004-10-29T07:22:07Z")
Since I don’t think we ever ran into those guys, I’d say the Pygmies would be more likely. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/7 "2004-10-29T09:06:32Z")
The city of Troy and the existence of gorillas. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/8 "2004-10-29T13:57:26Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I would think that the words “immediate speculation” rather than “conclusive proof” would rather make it clear that I am not stating anything has been validated. (Perhaps I have a higher opinion of most Dopers’ reading perception than some.) THen you might want to change your thread title so that it doesn’t say “based in fact”. > [@](#): > > Suggestive, but not definitive. Good turn of phrase. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/9 "2004-10-29T14:19:27Z")
The claimed descent of the Princes of Powys, Wales, from Cunedda, was always regarded by the fictional-genealogy-debunkers as made up from whole cloth. Then a pillar erected by Elider, a figure about halfway through the genealogy, and giving his “aps” which validated another couple of generations, was discovered in an archaeological dig somewhere in Powys. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/10 "2004-10-29T14:23:52Z")
The city of [UR](http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/UR/Arch1.html) was mentioned as an important city in the Old Testamament and later found and excavated. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oral-histories-once-deemed-legend-later-believed-based-in-fact/271802/11 "2004-10-29T14:44:40Z")
In 1880, the American Arctic explorer, Charles Francis Hall, met with the elders of a tribe of Inuit people, who lived on the southern shores of Baffin Island (in the Canadian Arctic). The elders told Hall baout a long-ago time when strange white-skinned men came to Baffin Island, and built a big stone IGLOO. These men quarrelled with the natives, but spent most of their time digging up worthless rocks, which they took back to their ship. Later, there was a battle between the white men and the inuit people, and many white men were killed. The white men then left, and abandoned the igloo-for many years afterwards, the inuit went to the abandoned igloo to get a starnge blackrock (coal) which would burn like wood or whale fat. What the Inuit elders were describing to Hall was the visit of the English explorer and buccaneer, Martin Frobisher, in 1588! Hall thought it all a myth, except that archaeologists in the 1960’s corroborated the whole account-the english did build a stone house, and brought coal to heat it. The worthless rocks were what Frobisher belived to be gold ore.