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.
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.
The Cerne Abbas Giant was probably first constructed in the late Saxon period, according to new analysis which has surprised archaeologists and historians.
The 180ft (55m) naked chalk figure brandishing a giant club overlooks the village of Cerne Abbas in Dorset.
Its origins and purpose have been shrouded in mystery, but experts can for the first time reveal the likely age of the giant.
The Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset (Ben Birchall/PA)
Following state-of-the-art sediment analysis, National Trust archaeologists have concluded the giant was probably first constructed in the late Saxon period.
Independent geoarchaeologist Mike Allen, whose research is helping the Trust understand more about the landscape in which the giant was created, said the result is surprising.
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The sun was still low in the sky on the spring morning last year when Martin Papworth, an archeologist for the National Trust, arrived in the village of Cerne Abbas. Setting off along a wooded path at the foot of Giant Hill, he carried in each hand a bucket loaded with excavation tools. Cerne Abbas, in a picturesque valley in Dorset, about three hours southwest of London, is an ancient settlement. At one end of the village, beneath a meadow abutting a burial ground, lie the foundations of what was, a thousand years ago, a thriving abbey. Close by is a spring-fed well named for St. Augustine, a monk who was sent by Rome in the sixth century to convert Britain to Christianity, and who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. According to legend, he caused the spring to stream forth by striking the ground with his staff. Atop Giant Hill lies an earthwork, possibly dating from the Iron Age: a rectangular enclosure, known as the Trendle, that may have been a