In 1980, the Argos Orestiko Archaeological Society discovered three humanoid graves near Volos, Greece, 8 km northeast of the city. A plaque on the “Volos Hominid,” first exhibited in 1980 at the Madison Art Center in Wisconsin, reads: “One of three humanoid graves discovered in 1980 by the Argos Orestiko Archaeological Society near Volos, Greece, eight km northeast.” The bones, both human and horse, are genuine but were reconstructed and staged by an individual named Bill Willers.
According to forensic anthropologist and writer Dolly Stolze on the forensic anthropology website Strange Remains, in 1980, Bill Willers, an artist and biology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, assembled the remaining bones of the Volos Hominid from real human bones and those of a Shetland pony. The human bones Willers used were from an anatomical sample, a human skeleton from India, available in his biology department. The human and horse bones were stained with tea to achieve a uniform color and a lifelike appearance.
The “Volos Hominid” toured various universities in the 1980s before being acquired by the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1994. It is now permanently displayed at their Jack E. Reese Galleria in Hodges Library. In 2008, Willers was authorized by Skulls Unlimited, a company specializing in real bones, to create another hominid skeleton:
The “Tymfi Hominid” was exhibited at the Arizona International Wildlife Museum in 2012 as part of the “Wildlife Mythology” exhibition before being acquired by the Barnum Museum in Connecticut. (Interesting fact: The “Tymfi Hominid” actually used the bones of a wild boar, not a horse.) Regarding the reasons behind the creation and display of the “Volos Hominid,” according to Stolze:
The exhibition aimed to encourage students to rely on critical thinking skills and not accept everything as true, no matter how reliable it may seem, even from a credible source like a university exhibition. According to Roadside America, Willers “viewed the hominid as a way to test the public’s willingness to believe in the unbelievable, much like PT Barnum did.” In today’s age, it’s relatively certain that posting pictures of “Volos” on Facebook could still convince at least a few people and perpetuate its circulation.
