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artist's depiction of Zana

There have been a lot of wild-man stories circulating in different regions of the world for hundreds of years. But none of them are quite as fascinating as the story of Zana, the wild woman of Russia. This is not a legend. Zana was real, and her story still begs a lot of questions to this day about elusive hominids of the world such as Bigfoot and Yeti.

She was captured in the late 1800’s in the Caucasus Mountains between Russia and Georgia where she behaved much like a wild animal, as she was kept in squalor in a hole in the ground and taunted by the village children. She was kept there for about two years until her spirit was basically broken and she was allowed to run around the village. By then, she didn’t wander far from her food source and stayed close to the humans around her. She was used as a slave to do much of the heavy work on her owner’s estate, and it was said some of the village men got her drunk occasionally and gave away prizes to the men who dared to have sex with her.

As a result of this, she was said to have given birth to eight children by human men. The first four died, tragically, as she instinctively took them to the icy river to wash them shortly after birth. They didn’t survive the frigid water. The last four were taken by the village women and raised by them and integrated into Russian society as humans, since they could speak and function as moderately intelligent, albeit not very attractive humans. And they lived as humans and had children of their own. And their descendents are said to still live in that area of Russia to this day.

Zana's son Khwit

Over the years since, there has been controversy about what Zana actually was. Was she in fact human? Was she some kind of Neanderthal throwback? Was she a Russian Yeti? Or was she of Sub-Saharan African descent like Dr. Bryan Sykes concluded upon testing the DNA of her descendents?

This is where this story takes a strange twist. Once Zana was determined to be a human of Sub-Saharan origin, the story was subsequently swept under the rug by many skeptics, claiming she was a very ugly, possibly deformed human with sub-standard intelligence. And this is what has happened with many possible bigfoot stories. Once the DNA results test positive for a human, the investigation comes to an end. If it’s found to be a human, it’s a dead end for bigfoot research. It’s happened so many times with DNA results. But who could have predicted what would eventually happen in the field of bigfoot research in the meantime?

There were too many well-documented, curious details about Zana that didn’t add up to her being a regular human. She was described as being 6 feet 6 inches tall, very bulky and muscular, long arms, and covered in thick reddish hair. She had thick, heavy brow ridges, a broad nose, no discernible forehead and no neck, and large red eyes. She could follow orders and understand what the villagers were telling her, but she couldn’t speak. She was only able to make different sounds to express herself. And even though she was eventually allowed to live indoors, she couldn’t tolerate the warmth and preferred to sleep outside in the often very cold temperatures.

Does this description sound familiar?

And when the Sasquatch Genome Project headed by Dr. Melba Ketchum did their DNA tests of possible bigfoot samples, made their conclusions, and began suggesting that Sasquatches were a type of human, a light bulb popped on for some bigfoot researchers.
 

Zana's daughter, Natalia.

So, this story becomes even more interesting, since many believe Zana was a yeti/sasquatch- type hominid. They did, in fact, bury her in the local cemetery, but since the grave hadn’t been marked, no one knows exactly where. Though it was Dr. Igor Burtsev that exhumed and studied the skull of Zana’s son, Khwit, to try and find some answers. He along with several other anthropologists determined the skull structure to be a mix of both modern and primitive features. But since that time, we haven’t had much of an idea about what that could mean.

But finally, we may reach some REAL conclusion about what Zana actually was. A human…of sorts??? A human of the Sasquatch type??? That is to say, if the Sasquatch Genome Project is correct???

Now, though this all may seem obvious to some, for others, it takes a while to soak in. DNA results in the past of possible bigfoot hair and blood that have ended up being found to be human after all, can STILL be a sasquatch. We need to go back to the drawing board with a lot of cases. If sasquatches are a type of human, then DNA results of “human” that have been dismissed in the past as bigfoot evidence need to be revisited. Maybe we missed the obvious all along.
******DF


This Post By TCC Team Member Dorraine Fisher. Dorraine is a Professional Writer, a nature, wildlife and Bigfoot enthusiast who has written for many magazines. Dorraine conducts research, special interviews and more for The Crypto Crew. Get Dorraine's book The Book Of Blackthorne!



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Almas

Almas -
Also Almasty and Albasty.
The Almas (Mongolian: Алмас/Almas, Bulgarian: Алмас, Chechen: Алмазы, Turkish: Albıs), Mongolian for "wild man", is a purported hominid cryptozoological species reputed to inhabit the Caucasus and Pamir Mountains of central Asia, and the Altai Mountains of southern Mongolia.

Other names by which these creatures are known, depending on the particular region, are 'Wind-Man', Abnuaaya, Bekk-Bok, Biabin-Guli, Gul-Biavan, Guli-Avan, Golub-Yavan, Kaptar, Kra-Dhan, Ksy-Giik or Ksy Gyik, Mirygdy, Mulen and Voita.

Almases are typically described as human-like bipedal animals, between five and six and a half feet tall, their bodies covered with reddish-brown hair, with anthropomorphic facial features including a pronounced browridge, flat nose, and a  receding chin. Many cryptozoologists believe there is a similarity between these descriptions and modern reconstructions of how Neanderthals might have appeared.

1420 - The first known printed reference on the Almas was made by a Bavarian named Hans Schiltberger. He traveled through the Tien Shan mountains as a captive to the Mongols. During his imprisonment he kept a journal in which he wrote:
"In the mountains themselves live a wild people, who have nothing in common with other human beings, a pelt covers the entire body of these creatures. Only the hands and face are free of hair. They run around in the hills like animals and eat foliage and grass and whatever else they can find. The Lord of the Territory made Egidi a present of a couple of forest people, a man and a woman, together with three untamed horses the sizes of asses and all sorts of other animals which are not found in German lands and which I cannot therefore put a name to."

1807-1867 - Sightings reported at Khalkha, the Galbin Gobi and Dzakh Soudjin Gobi as well as in Inner Mongolia; also at the Gourban Bogdin Gobi, Chardzyn Gobi and the Alachan desert.

In the mid 1800s  a wild woman who was named Zana is said to have lived in the isolated mountain village of T'khina fifty miles from Sukhumi in Abkhazia in the Caucasus; some have speculated she may have been an Almas. According to accounts, she was very physically powerful, able to perform feats of exceptional strength. Zana, at first was violent towards her captors but soon became domesticated and assisted with simple household chores. While in captivity, Zana was passed on through a succession of owners and mothered several hybrid children. According to the story, she had as many as 6 offspring, by different men, with a total of 4 surviving with the help of the local village women. According to reports the children were fairly normal, except for being dark and physically powerful. The 4 children were assimilated into normal society, married, and had families of their own  One of the male children, Khwit, remains namely the skull was examined by Dr. Grover Krantz in the early 1990s. He pronounced it to be entirely modern, with no Neanderthal features at all.  Zana, herself  died sometime in the 1890.

In the 2013 a documentary, Bigfoot Files, Professor Bryan Sykes of the University of Oxford showed that Zana's DNA was 100% Sub-Saharan African in origin and she could have been a slave brought to Abkhazia by the Ottoman Empire Prof. Sykes did however raise questions as to whether Zana could have been from a population of Africans who left the continent tens of thousands of years earlier as her son, Khwit's skull had some very unique and archaic characteristics.

There is much more to the tale of Zana and her offspring, I invite others to research and come to their own conclusions.

Myra Shackley and Bernard Heuvelmans have speculated that the Almases are a relict population of Neanderthals, while Loren Coleman suggests surviving specimens of Homo erectus. They have been connected to the Denisova hominin. Descriptions of Almases are similar to that of the Yeti of the Himalayas.

Name: Almas
Similar to: Bigfoot, Orang Pendek, Batutut,Yeti
Location: Central Asia
Movement: Bi-pedal
Size: 5-6 and half Feet tall
Photos/Videos: None

Most of this information comes from Wikipedia and there is very little I have added to the post. As for the photo used, I do not know who the original artist is or who to give credit to. There is much more tales of the Almas and sighting reports than I have included here.
Thanks
~Tom~
[sources: Wikipedia, crystalinks]



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