The Cardiff Giant was a fraudulent statue, promoted as a fossil of a giant man.
George Hull, a New York atheist, perpetrated the fraud after arguing with a minister about a passage in Genesis that claimed there were 'giants' on earth in biblical times. After creating the fake out of a block of gypsum quarried in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Hull transported it to his cousin's farm where it was buried for a year. The two men charged 25ยข to view the fake. When circus owner P.T. Barnum was unable to purchase the giant, he had another one carved and promoted it as the original.