1860's A.D.: (some sources say 1870's A.D. Be warned: the exact dates and even details on portions of this account are not too certain!) An unusual 6'6" tall, strong, muscular, extremely swift hairy woman is captured and drug from the forest in the nation of Georgia, then kept as a slave in the village of Tkhina in the Abkhazia region of the nation of Georgia until her death in about 1890 A.D.? Here is a compilation of things written and learned about her. But most surprisingly, she reproduced healthy and fertile children with local men. She was genetically as human as any of us.
Christ is the 'Image of God'.
All men are fashioned in a physical image which God chose or allowed.
When it comes to genetics, it's Christian piety to embrace our variety!
The east end of the Black Sea is where the beautiful nation of Georgia sits, some report that it was the 2nd officially Christian nation in the world (this website has the story...an amazing miracle!) and it appears that Zana's story might be the genuine story of an unusual but real creature or woman seen and reported and captured in that area...a roughly kept prisoner at first, but then eventually allowed to roam somewhat freely in her captor's village as a celebrity curiosity of sorts that had become a 'pet wild human'. It is a pretty sad story at certain points because Zana was definitely exploited and most would say abused badly. Yet seen through the lens of the descriptions that have come down to our time she was so different than a 'normal' human that she would never have fit in and been seen as just another woman in our version of human society. She was legendarily strong physically, far faster on foot that normal humans, about 6'6" tall and covered with hair all over her body. The Frenchman Joseph Niepce had developed photography in the 1820's but there seems to be no photos of Zana, who was kept captive or publicly accessible from the 1860's to the 1890's (and that is almost cause for suspicion, I admit). She was also almost fully mute. Again perhaps she had been abandoned by her 'original family or tribe'? Maybe she had no one and nothing to go back to out in the wild mountainous lands of the Georgian Caucusus Mountains. Or maybe she actually came to appreciate the easier life that society offered in 19th century Georgia. She reportedly was a gluttonous eater, and loved to soak in a local pond with the 'buffalo' as it was written, (did they mean oxen?) who she was reportedly found of. And she did become hooked on wine. It's hard to obtain wine if you go back out to the forest to live. And it was said that she loved eating clusters of grapes, that they were her favorite. Again, those might be harder to find in the forest, though some grapes do grow wild in some areas.
Abkhazia, Georgia borders the east end of the Black Sea and is in the north-west portion of the nation of Georgia. Part of the Caucusus Mountains are there, areas of which are quite remote and heavily forested.
When you search for information about Zana of Abkhazia you often find this picture/sketch above, which is apparently of unclear origins and may not be a likeness of her at all. Zana lived in the days of photography, so it is curious, even suspicious that it isn't easier to find photos. She was treated as an oddity and lived as a captive and then semi-captive in a Georgian village full of 'normal' humans for decades until her death in about 1890 A.D., so where are the photos? Were cameras slow to arrive in the nation of Georgia at that time? Were none ever taken? How about paintings? I did listen to a report that said that in the mid 1900's a Tkhina villager, an old man who was 105 years old, gave an investigator first hand eye witness details about Zana. He had lived in the village back then during her years there in Tkhina. Please contact 812-564-9421 if you know of reliable photos of Zana.
Yet another photo I keep seeing on Zana sites. Since it is in color and there is clothing and the woman does not appear hairy and it is not the same as the photo above I believe it is not a photo of Zana, but does it derive from a photo of Zana? I don't know. I doubt it. It does display the reddish hair ascribed to the Amasty 'wild men' of the Caucusus mountains, but doesn't seem to have any real body hair, so...probably not from a Zana photo? And this is one of the problems of writing about Zana. I have come to believe that she was real, but there is so much wrong info to go with the portion that is accurate. I find it hard to sort out.
Zana had two boys and two girls who survived I have frequently read on sites about her. Only her boy named Khwit remained in the village of Tkhina, where his birth mother Zana was held captive or semi-captive. Some sites say Khwit lived there until his death in 1954. He was said to look normal enough but to be extra strong physically. He was known as a brawler and fighter according to some accounts. One source said he lost a hand that way. (Not many brawls result in that!) But all of the sites I visited that had the picture of him that is posted further down said that this truly was his picture. He was the particular son of Zana that genetic research was done on posthumously. He was dug up in 1971 according to what I have read. But Zana's remains were not disinterred and identified until decades later. One claim is that he was raised by the widow of Zana's owner/captor, Edgi Genaba.
Oxford Genetics Professor Bryan Sykes (b.1947 d.2020)
Khwit's skull was also exhumed and analyzed by a Bryan Sykes who is a Professor of Human Genetics at Oxford, and I do not know what he is holding in this picture but it isn't related to this account! It is reported that he found Kwhit's eye sockets to be especially large, his brow ridge unusually thick, and an extra bone at the base of his skull. Some of Khwit's genetic material was taken from his teeth, some from his other bones. When remains were finally found that appeared to be Zana's the identity of Zana's bones was further proven when the genetic analysis showed that the suspected woman's remains were indeed from Khwit's mother. Professor Sykes reportedly also found and obtained saliva samples in around 2013 A.D. from six of Zana's living descendants and determined Zana to have sub-Saharan African type DNA.
A photo of Zana's youngest child Khwit, who died in 1954? He reportedly lived his life in or near Tkhina, the same village where Zana lived and died, but I found nothing that described whether he had any sort of social relationship with Zana. She didn't talk. He might have been teased or bullied about being her son. All just speculation. But he was somewhat taller than normal, somewhat stronger than most, but otherwise described as a normal enough sort of guy. His father was either some unknown friend or acquaintance of Edgi Genaba, or Edgi himself. Again, Edgi was the rich merchant from the village of Tkhina that ended up keeping Zana in his enclosed garden at his home. Some sites say that Edgi was not Zana's original captor, but that she briefly passed through a couple of other 'owners' first, one being an Abkhazian prince who knew Edgi Genaba. Initially Edgi bought and kept her in an enclosure of some sort in a garden at his house. People came and paid money to look at her like a zoo animal or a circus exhibit.
At first she seemed wild and hostile. Reportedly after about three years she was acting much less threatening towards people, so then she was allowed to roam Edgi's garden on a chain, and then later she became even more trusted and 'domesticated' seeming, and so she was allowed to come and go from the garden, doing various assigned tasks. She stayed close to the food and water and familiarity of her dwelling. She would recognize her name when it was spoken (Edgi named her Zana) but she reportedly only made deep sounding noises, never attempting to speak. Cutting wood, grinding corn, and carrying sacks of grain were among her tasks. It was learned that she was very strong and could easily lift grain sacks of over 100 pounds with just one arm. Some accountings say Zana had thick and heavy arms, legs, breasts and fingers, a robust body and that only palms, soles and face were bare skinned and that her skin was darker than the local norm, I'm not sure how dark, but reported as dark by local witnesses. And she was a physical specimen! She could out run local horses that were at full gallop the reports say. For perspective on that, Usain Bolt, perhaps the world's fastest man, got up to a speed of slightly over 27 miles per hour when running the short distance of 100 meters where a sprinter runs all out. Today's race horses can run nearly 38 miles per hour, but call it 38 miles per hour. If we allow that the horses that were in Zana's village could run 75% or 80% as fast as today's race horses then they would have been running about 28.5 to 30.4 miles per hour. For Zana to be faster than they were she would possibly have also been faster than Usain Bolt. All speculation, but in her day and place they found her to be an amazingly fast runner, able to outrun their galloping horses.
Zana became an alcoholic, a wino, sometime during this captive period from wine that her owner Edgi would give her. Perhaps others shared their's as well. Edgi would also reportedly let some of his men friends or acquaintances 'sleep with her'. And one site claimed that he 'slept with her' himself though he was a married man. That site said that after Edgi died the last two of the four children Zana had that survived were raised by Edgi's widow. Khwit was one of those, the site said. Khwit is reported to have had two sons who became miners that were visited by various investigators and spoken to. I read a reader comment on one site which said that when a Russian investigator named Porshnev visited the two sons of Khwit he reported that they also were considered extra strong men physically among the miners. One of them reportedly showed his strength by bending over and picking up a chair with a man seated in it with only his teeth. An unusual demonstration of strength, but so that report goes.
One source said that the four of Zana's six children who survived beyond the day of their birth also went on to have normal appearing children of their own. Here are pictures of two of Zana's children and also some of Zana's grand children. Zana in recently years still had at least 6 descendants whose location and identity were known. Saliva samples were taken from that many in one report.
Some of Zana's early descendants, all likely deceased now: daughter Kodzhanar, son Kwhit, then below Kwhit's children left to right Tanya, Raya, and Shaliko. Picture is from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1002%2Fggn2.10051&file=ggn210051-sup-0001-supinfo1.pdf
Khodjanar reportedly worked at a post office and a certain Russian 'Zana researcher' who met and interviewed her described her as a very normal woman. She would pass for having an unremarkable appearance I would say. Do you agree? Yet she descended from a woman that had the attributes of a "bigfoot". Maybe these various 'wild men' legends from around the world actually speak of peoples that are as human as any other group, but of a more unusual appearance? The good news is that no matter how unusual you may appear, one of your grand kids still has a decent shot at landing a good post office job.
A lot of times I have spoken with men and women who are believers in the creature called the bigfoot or the yeti, and there are other names. And there are television shows led by crews of investigators searching the woods, mountains and vales, hinter lands and humid swamps of various reported or likely seeming locations, hoping to audio and video verify the existence of this 'creature' once and for all. It's a fun and interesting pursuit! I believe a great portion of the Earth's population is now pretty aware of this possibly real but possibly mythical creature. If it is real, is it an ape, or a type of human? If it is real, what type of social groups do they live in...what kind of nomadic society do they have? How do they communicate with each other? How do they stay hidden so well, all things considered, in a world with 8 billion woods-foraging people and hikers and park rangers and game hunters and satellites and drones and air planes, etc.?
I haven't seen this bigfoot type creature personally, and feel that one should have been caught or filmed or found deceased by now. There are reports that such evidence exists, of course. But it never seems to materialize as an irrefutable display that can survive skeptical scrutiny. The films I've seen seem grainy and out of focus. I am still a doubter that they are alive today, yet I kind of hope that I am wrong. The world is more fun and interesting with bigfoot in it. But I am much more willing to believe that they were real and alive in recent centuries. As people point out, there are so many cultures that speak of this type creature, often describing it in a similar fashion.
Lately I have run across quite a few articles about this Zana, who was an 'unusual human woman' or perhaps one of these creatures that some call bigfoot, or an Amasty. The main thing I've concluded is that it seems her story is real, the account about her seems pretty well confirmed in the broad strokes. I think she has been shown to be an unusual specimen of modern 'human woman', and I will refer to her that way, writing this as if it is the report of a genuine and pretty well validated occurrence, though I don't know with 100% certainty by any means, and some details in this account re almost certain to be incorrect, so use your own discernment and diligence.
Zana's remains, finally located in the last several years (I am writing in 2024 A.D.) in the family graveyard of her eventual owner, Edgi Genaba, and the remains of one of her sons named Khwit who died in 1954, have been studied quite extensively in a laboratory environment. The lab concluded that Khwit and Zana were definitely son and mother. They also concluded that Zana was no exotic new creature but rather an example of modern woman, her DNA haplogroups strongly suggesting an African origin. That particular scientific study concluded with the hypothesis that her people were escapees from the Ottoman slave trade, and they supposed that it was some sort of genetic disease that caused her to be speechless, very strong, hairy and tall, and able to outrun a horse at full gallop...or that those claims were just false claims by the locals. But after getting the lab results they were adamant that she was a human, not some ape or related beast. (Anyone wishing to read about their laboratory study can visit the Wiley Online Laboratory and search for an article called "The Genomic Origins of Zana of Abkhazia" for which I have provided this link. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ggn2.10051 I hope the link still works by the time you the reader read this article!)
Yet the physical description given of Zana falls pretty well in line with the description of the Almas or Almasti that is the name sometimes given to the long reported bigfoot or wild men of that region of north west Georgia and their portion of the Caucusus mountains there. Here is some Wikipedia info on that from a page titled "Almas":
In North Caucasian folklore, an almas, alma or almasty, is a cryptid folk creature said to inhabit the Caucasus, Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains of Central Asia and the Altai Mountains of western Mongolia. End quote.
And some more from the same Wikipedia page:
Nikolay Przhevalsky describes the almas, as related to him under the name kung-guressu ("man-beast"), as follows:
We were told that it had a flat face like that of a human being, and that it often walked on two legs, that its body was covered with a thick black fur, and its feet armed with enormous claws; that its strength was terrible, and that not only were hunters afraid of attacking it, but that the inhabitants removed their habitations from those parts of the country which it visited.[7]
Heaney suggests that the almas should be identified with the Arimaspi, a group of legendary humanoid creatures said to inhabit the Riphean Mountains.[3] End Quote
So people from the area where Zana was captured in about 1860 or 1870 A.D. and where she lived captive or semi-captive until about 1890 A.D. did have their traditions of there being strong, tall, hairy 'wild men' living near their settlements in the forests and mountains, for whatever that is worth. There was some fear of those wild men as well.
For some reason it seems that 'Zana' was alone and living in an isolated manner when she was discovered, reported, then captured by hunters sent to track her down. They reports say they dug a pit, lining the sides with wooden spikes, then covering it over so it was not easily seen, and perusing her on horseback they got her to run over it and fall in.
Perhaps she was a lost woman, a banished woman, or perhaps the last of her group because of a plague or illness or some other deadly occurrence? But the story that has come down is that a single quite hairy fast-running and tall woman who did not wear clothing began to be seen in a certain region of the woods by locals of the area. She apparently avoided other people, and ran when they came near. And she reportedly was an extremely fast runner, as mentioned, and that she also swam extraordinarily well, but I am not sure if they had learned that about her at this early time when she was first being seen in the wooded country and talked about.
Various local men were good enough to have sex with Zana over the years, and one report is that she had six children in total. She apparently had the ingrained idea or original example from her upbringing in the forest that when you gave birth to a child you went down and scrubbed it off in the river to get it clean. Her first two births in captivity, apparently during the colder part of the year, resulted in newborns that died in the freezing cold river/creek water she used to scrub them off. Imagine her sadness. They would have been someone to love and be loved by. The notion is that the wild people that she came from may have given birth to a more vigorous sort of baby, which could survive a cold dousing. But perhaps she just wanted her baby to be clean and had not been trained about how fragile babies could be when only moments out of the womb. Local women felt that this was a sad shame, so after the first two births they assisted her in giving birth, and then immediately took the babies from her and they were raised by some local family or another.
Her children were fairly normal looking children per the pictures above and later grew to adulthood looking fairly normal then also. Her son Khwit grew up to be especially strong, reports say. Above are pictures of him. (at least I can verify that the pictures are captioned as being of Zana's son Kwit.) Her children were slightly more on the hairy side, but nothing mentioned as being out of the normal range. They in turn had children who were 'normal' looking. So, given that you have to be 'human', or very closely related genetically, to reproduce with 'humans', Zana seems to have been a human in full. And Zana's offspring were not sterile either. Zana seems to have come from some legitimate branch of the human family tree. Was she hairy? Well, in the Bible in Genesis we learn of Jacob/Israel's older brother Esau, who was a hairy man, who enjoyed spending time out hunting in the field. He was so hairy that his blind father Isaac reached out with his hand and felt the pelt of a goat that son Jacob draped over his arm and used to trick his father into giving a firstborn's blessing to him instead of to his older brother Esau, and Isaac was convinced that it was the familiar hairy arm of his older son Esau. So it has not always been unknown for 'normal' humans to be very hairy.
Some people say that Zana was merely some woman who had a genetic condition that made her appear quite different. I sort of doubt that because of all her other unusual traits. Still, it may be true. History bears record of a number of extremely hairy individuals who became well known. Here is a picture of Julia Pastrana, born in Sinaloa Mexico in 1834. She became a celebrated though sadly exploited singer and performer in her day. She was born with the medical condition Hypertrichosis. Now ask yourself this: if she was alive today and you paid her to run unclothed through the woods near a group of bigfoot researchers, do you think you could get them to report that they observed a female bigfoot? I think there would be a good chance. Yet she was fully human, just as much as you or the next person, right? There really are a remarkable number of ways that the human genome can express itself, and that is through the narrow bottle neck provided by one human family...Noah's family...so imagine the staggering number of different human face and body types that would have likely have existed before the Great Flood. And people back then, the pre-flood people, would have probably considered them all 'normal', wouldn't they have? I can only imagine what the most extreme natural human specimens would have looked like before the Great Flood.
Zana died around 1890, I couldn't discover mention of her cause of death, and her remains were buried fairly respectfully in the family graveyard of her long time keeper and owner, but their location was forgotten over time, so it was probably not a very well marked grave. As mentioned, it was rediscovered by 'Zana researchers' in recent years.
Zana, made by God and Jesus whatever her true story was, reproduced like any human but was described as if she might be a bigfoot or some wild cave woman from the mountains...perhaps a surviving relic of prehistoric humanity. Testing reports show that she was apparently just one of us. So, humans are humans. It is fine for us to have our many different appearances. It pleased God to make us that way. We should of course respect His opinions on such things and love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. It is Christian piety to respect variety...of appearance, at least. As for behavior, God has fairly strict and well defined ideas about that, and Christians have to live within the ditches when it comes to those. It is not a sign of our goodness or tolerance to cheer on behaviors that we know God would rebuke and perhaps even reject and punish. We do not see things more clearly than God. Our sense of right and wrong is not more profound and spot-on than God's. But as for our natural outward appearance, God always does good work! And whenever it should appear that He did not in some instance, we will probably understand some day why it was how it was.
This ends the account of Zana which is missing a lot of reliable information, but surprisingly seems to have been a genuine occurrence in the later 1800's. I personally would like to learn more, and I suspect that there is a bit more history and fact that could be uncovered. But for a captured 'bigfoot' story, it is one of the best attested that I personally know of.