The date of the Cerne Giant has long been a matter for debate, as exemplified by a public and televised debate of March 1996, published as The Cerne Giant: An Antiquity on Trial (1999, Oxbow Books). Excavations were conducted in 2020 by the National Trust in the centenary year of its ownership of the Giant. The excavations were limited and targeted in extent and scope, the aim was to date the actual construction of the iconic figure by absolute dating methods (OSL). As the 1999 publication explained, the jury was still out – with advocates for a prehistoric origin, one connected to the period of the Civil War or a more modern one. In the event, the dates were a complete surprise, falling within the Anglo-Saxon period.
The research has provided an accurate, scientifically verified date for the Cerne Giant. These unexpected results, together with the land-use history and ominous ‘disappearance’ of the Giant for six centuries, provide the platform for reconsideration and new discussion and debate.
Part 1 deals with new research: the historical background and aims, the excavation results, stratigraphic finds, geoarchaeological interpretation, land-use history (environmental/land snails), and discussion. Part 2 is the wider discussion and implications derived from the results and places the Giant in his local and Saxon context. Part 3 begins with summaries of the other two excavated hill figures (the Long Man of Wilmington and the Uffington White Horse) followed by a series of essays from leading archaeologists, historians and experts in early medieval iconography.
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Foreword: Our Cerne Giant by Kate Aide
PART ONE – THE CERNE GIANT: EXCAVATION AND DATING THE GIANT
1. Place, Person and Context: an introduction to the Cerne Giant
Michael J. Allen
2. The new research: dating the Giant; reconnaissance, aims and methods
Michael J. Allen
3. Research Results; fieldwork, dating and analysis
ed. Michael J. Allen
High resolution photogrammetric survey (3-D ground surface model) (M.J. Allen)
Geophysical surveys (David, Clark, Bartlett, Linford, Clements, Cheetham)
Excavation results (Michael J. Allen and Martin Papworth)
Auger surveys (Michael J. Allen)
Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating (P.S. Toms, J.C. Wood and M.J. Allen)
The land-use history of a hillside; land mollusc evidence (Michael J. Allen)
Primary Fieldwork Conclusions (Michael J. Allen)
4. The Giant and the Early Medieval History of Cerne
Barbara Yorke
5. Hide and Seek on a Dorset Hillside
Brian Edwards
6. Know your Giant
Brian Edwards
7. The Giant’s story; the archaeological results considered
Michael J. Allen
Giant timeline (Brian Edwards and Michael J. Allen)
PART TWO: THE GIANT IN CONTEXT
8. The Saxon Abbey of Cerne: an introduction to the Abbey and recent archaeological research
Michael J. Allen
9. The Tenth Century Cerne Abbey: Benedictine ecclesiastical reform and land management
Katherine Barker
10. The Cerne Giant; an antiquity on trial 1996; a summary
Katherine Barker
11. Why did we think the Giant was ancient? The case for an ancient Giant
Timothy Darvill
12. Giant assumptions: locating chalk figures within prehistory
Susan Greaney
13. Images of the Giant
Sarah Fry
14. A research agenda for the Giant
Michael J. Allen
PART THREE: GIANT CONSIDERATIONS – WIDER REFLECTIONS ON THE RESULTS
Context and Contrasts
15. The Long Man of Wilmington; a progress report on a giant conundrum
Martin Bell and Chris Butler
16. I will survive: the continuing story of the Uffington White Horse
David Miles and Simon Palmer
17. Two chalk giants: Wilmington and Cerne revisited
Rodney Castleden
Essays and Reflections
18. Implications of the hill figure dates
Ronald Hutton
19. Heroes, kings and giants at assembly places
Stuart Brookes
20. Wiltshire’s chalk equine hill figures: what’s the problem?
Garry Gibbons
21. Hill Figures in the Landscape: contexts, survival and function
Tom Williamson
22. Hill Figures; Retrospective and National Research Agenda
Michael J. Allen and Win Scutt
Appendix 1: National Trust; description of Giant Hill and the chalkland vegetation
Appendix 2: Placing Cerne Abbas ‘On the Map’; Stuart Piggott’s 1946 BBC radio broadcast (21 June 1946) on the theme of the Giant (Jan Lewis)
Appendix 3: National Trust specification for scouring (1974)
Appendix 4: Optically Stimulated Luminescence sample 1 location
Bibliography
Index
