No disrespect to the O.P..
It just reminded me of Wadlow I'd read about years ago.
An outlier though ,not a race.https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/size-37-shoe-of-worlds-tallest-person-on-display-at-legendary-michigan-store/ar-AAMcFu7
Giants seems a stretch. What if we're simply smaller than they were?
The article in the o.p. has some spot on descriptions comparable to the state Wadlow visited for shoes.
That of wall and ditch beyond.
One , a single wall took me repeated readings of in an old archeological journal to grasp the "ditch" relation.
Then , lithic artifacts combined the same context/level/placement of mixed origin.
Here's where it got good later (well for me anyways and why I repeat it too much) when about 60 miles North where I've been around multiple mixed lithics from varied origins (read styles varied due to "schools" , not previous eras) in a hearth. In the end of a mound. With a bit of charred bone. (Alleged determined cervid/deer bone.)
Mound site similar to O.P. references in relation to water. As with others in the area.
A couple points of opinion not related to the article though who knows..
To be on the site/area during spring run off and "normal" resultant flooding ,
A mound can be an island. Which suits turtle and co. versions of dry earth origin if a culture subscribes as they did /do here.
Mounds are burial sites, But not always!
Legend and rumor had a certain class and sex at one mound on the North end of a riverine valley. I've not pursued it. But the mounds nearer me below I had detail on the excavations of those sampled.
(While I leave such alone , a college was led into such.)
The mound with the hearth and mixed lithics (which matched the palisade ditch farther South caught my attention most and thus deciphering text. As layman readable was not the goal. l.o.l..
That mound had no burial in it. Nor those downstream. Those above I don't know but suits me if they were left alone.
How tall were those mound builders? If it matters.
Moving that volume of material without leaving "borrow" pits near was work.
Work of the type I'd call a luxury to have time to do.
Big bodies might have been welcomed.
Copper culture but more , red ochre in particular had influence over a broad area. Perhaps the remnants along the Mississippi far below prior part of range. OR , natives there were duplicating similar works?
Bringing me to , who was before red ochre to compare to for size?
And is there any relationship to the alleged reports of red hair long ago?
Todays fun threat is youth storming area 51 for answers. (No I don't advocate going where not welcome. Doubly so when not legal.)
Maybe some of us older folk should storm the Smithsonian for answers?
(I'm kidding if anyone from the government is looking for real threats.)
