Click Here for full story.Dorset Echo wrote:Age of Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset revealed
THE likely age of Dorset's Cerne Abbas Giant has been revealed for the first time - and it has come as a surprise to historians.
Archaeologists at the National Trust have been analysing sediment taken from the carving - considered to be Britain’s largest and perhaps best-known chalk hill figure.
Generations have speculated about the age and meaning of the club-brandishing giant hewn into a Dorset hillside with some theories including it being a depiction of the legendary demi-god Hercules, an ancient fertility symbol, or even the soldier and statesman Oliver Cromwell.
Another theory is that the figure was carved around the body of a giant who was slain by local people after he terrorised the countryside.
Now, after state-of-the art sediment analysis funded by the National Trust, the University of Gloucestershire, Allen Environmental Archaeology and the Pratt Bequest, National Trust archaeologists have concluded the giant was probably first constructed in the late Saxon period – ruling out theories that the giant is prehistoric or Roman.
Cerne Abbas giant 'early medieval'
- Grahame
- Site Admin
-
Proficient
- Posts: 1472
- Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:52 pm
- Location: Glasgow, Scotland
- Contact:
Cerne Abbas giant 'early medieval'
Grahame
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it - Terry Pratchett.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it - Terry Pratchett.