A Date with the Two Cerne Giants: Results of the National Trust’s Excavation in 2020
Lecture by Mike Allen
Given at the Society of Antiquaries of London on October 17, 2024
Abstract: 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). 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 … including some stunning discoveries.
Mike Allen FSA is a geoarchaeologist and environmental archaeologist principally known for his work on the prehistoric land-use histories of chalkland landscapes such as Stonehenge, Avebury, Dorchester, Cranborne Chase and the South Downs – for which his interpretations have rewritten a long held textbook comprehensions.
See also: Cerne Giant was made in the Early Middle Ages, researchers find
See also: How Hercules Became Saint Eadwold
Top Image: Photo by Roger Marks / Flickr
A Date with the Two Cerne Giants: Results of the National Trust’s Excavation in 2020
Lecture by Mike Allen
Given at the Society of Antiquaries of London on October 17, 2024
Abstract: 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). 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 … including some stunning discoveries.
Mike Allen FSA is a geoarchaeologist and environmental archaeologist principally known for his work on the prehistoric land-use histories of chalkland landscapes such as Stonehenge, Avebury, Dorchester, Cranborne Chase and the South Downs – for which his interpretations have rewritten a long held textbook comprehensions.
See also: Cerne Giant was made in the Early Middle Ages, researchers find
See also: How Hercules Became Saint Eadwold
Top Image: Photo by Roger Marks / Flickr
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