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Cerne Abbas Giant

Frideswide said:
The changing size of the member:

I think that in some early pictures there is a navel as well as ribs and nipples. It would be fairly easy for a not-that-committed workforce to add the navel into the length of the member and..... Voila! :D
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Wiki agrees:

From a review of historical depictions of the figure, it has been identified that the Giant's current large erection is, in fact, the result of merging a circle representing his navel with a smaller penis during a 1908 re-cut: the navel still appears on a late 1890s picture postcard.
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I haven't found any photos which show this, or the postcard.


Road sign at Cerne Abbas

1567109653478.png
 
hunck said:
Volunteers restore Cerne Abbas giant to former glory

The scene could hardly have been more quintessentially English. As buzzards circled above and butterflies darted across the flower-dotted slopes, dozens of volunteers were digging and scraping at a huge figure carved into the steep hillside.


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Excellent report, however I much prefer the far more subtle headline from The Metro:

cerne.jpg


Volunteers polish giant’s erection by hand
A giant chalk figure of a man with a huge club is being given a make over.
The world famous Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset is 180ft tall and will be re-chalked by hand by dozens of volunteers over the next two weeks. It has been a feature of the area since the 17th century and is in need of a gentle polish and tickle to restore it – including the 36ft erect penis. Since its last refresh in 2008, the weather has taken its toll and weeds have encroached on the Giant, blurring its previously sharp chalky outline. Tonnes of the white stuff extracted from a nearby quarry will be tightly packed in by hand to the existing 1,509ft outline of the figure to ensure it remains visible for miles around. The Giant was given to the National Trust to look after in July 1920 by the Pitt-Rivers family, and the Trust is planning a year of celebrations next year to mark the centenary.
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https://metro.co.uk/2019/08/29/volunteers-polish-giants-erection-hand-10648785/
 
hunck said:
... I haven't found any photos which show this, or the postcard. ...
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I haven't found any photos alleged to be earlier than 1908, and the one obviously old picture postcard I've ever found is undated and the image is too indistinct to determine whether a separate navel (or the circle atop the penis) is visible.

The primary evidence for the figure's earlier appearance consists of various sketches and drawings from the 18th and 19th centuries.
 
He's had other changes as well. Again from Wiki:

A 1996 study found that some features have changed over time, concluding that the figure originally held a cloak in its left arm and stood over a disembodied head. The former presence of a cloak was corroborated in 2008 when a team of archaeologists using special equipment determined that part of the carving had been allowed to be obliterated. The cloak might have been a depiction of an animal skin, giving credence to the theory that the giant was a depiction of a hunter, or alternatively, Hercules with the skin of the Nemean lion over his arm. In 1993, the National Trust gave the Giant a "nose job" after years of erosion had worn it away.
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Archaeologists are attempting to determine for the first time the age of the mysterious Cerne Abbas Giant.
The giant chalk figure was gifted to the National Trust in 1920 by the Pitt-Rivers family.

Now the charity, together with the University of Gloucestershire, is undertaking tests to establish the giant’s age.

Archaeologists have excavated small trenches to enable samples of soil to be extracted from points on the giant’s elbows and feet.

Over the coming weeks, Professor Phillip Toms, from the University of Gloucestershire, will attempt to date the samples using a technique called optically stimulated luminescence (OSL).

Martin Papworth, a senior archaeologist at the National Trust, said: “The OSL technique is commonly used to determine when mineral grains in the soil were last exposed to sunlight.

“It was used to discover the age of the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire in the 1990s, which was found to be nearly 3,000-years-old – even more ancient than we had expected.

“We’re expecting the results of the tests in July. It is likely that the tests will give us a date range, rather than a specific age, but we hope they will help us better understand, and care for, this famous landmark.”

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/national/18326041.tests-undertaken-determine-age-cerne-abbas-giant/
 
A famous hillside chalk figure has been adorned with a face mask, in an apparent reference to coronavirus.

The Cerne Abbas Giant is thought to have been given the unauthorised makeover on Friday. Local resident Kevin Knight, who tweeted a picture of the alteration earlier, said it had "really lifted villagers' spirits". The National Trust, which manages the protected Dorset site, said it did not encourage defacements.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-52427165
 
Martin Papworth, senior archaeologist at the National Trust, and environmental archaeologist Mike Allen said two species of snail that appeared for the first time in Britain in the Roman period - thought to have been brought over from France as food - were not found at the site.
However, microscopic species, found for the first time in the medieval period during the 13th and 14th Centuries, have been discovered in the samples.
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This intrigues me, even though it would seem to rule out an "ancient" origin for the Giant.

As far as I know the previous competing theories about the Giant's origin refer back to either ancient / prehistoric times or some time during / after Cromwell. The notion that it may be medieval places the Giant's origin in a timeframe no one seems to have claimed or promoted before.
 
I was deeply disappointed to hear about this.

I do hope the Uffington Horse is not similarly derived.
 
EnolaGaia said:
This intrigues me, even though it would seem to rule out an "ancient" origin for the Giant.

As far as I know the previous competing theories about the Giant's origin refer back to either ancient / prehistoric times or some time during / after Cromwell. The notion that it may be medieval places the Giant's origin in a timeframe no one seems to have claimed or promoted before.
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The research certainly seems to indicate an earliest possible date of 1200 AD. My own pet theory is it's a Restoration-era lewd joke about a well-known personage. I live pretty close to the giant and he's often known as the 'rude man' - I think in honour of his rude, fine err... health!

AnonyJoolz said:
I've wondered if the figure was cut in the 1660's, as a celebration of - and bawdy joke about - the recent return of Charles II to Britain. There are certainly no references found so far that are earlier. Maybe it was villagers happy to see the back of Cromwell's dour no-fun Commonwealth? Indulging in a bit of restoration faux-paganry perhaps!

There are slight associations with Charles Stuart and the are of south west Dorset - He was smuggled through this area on his escape after the batthe of Worcester and stayed in Bridport briefly before scarpering to France.

If you fancy reading a scandalous ode about Charles I can recommend A Satyre on Charles II http://www.ealasaid.com/fan/rochester/charles.html
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"Peace is his aim, his gentleness is such,
And love he loves, for he loves fucking much.
---Nor are his high desires above his strength:
His scepter and his prick are of a length;"
 

Cerne Giant in Dorset dates from Anglo-Saxon times, analysis suggests​

Over the centuries the huge, naked, club-wielding giant carved into a steep hillside in Dorset has been thought prehistoric, Celtic, Roman or even a 17th century lampoon of Oliver Cromwell.

After 12 months of new, hi-tech sediment analysis, the National Trust has now revealed the probable truth and experts admit they are taken aback. The bizarre, enigmatic Cerne Giant is none of the above, but late Saxon, possibly 10th century.
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From The Guardian. More here
 
Interesting. I used to live not far away from the Giant, and we used to visit Cerne Abbas at weekends with three small children. In fact, I credit an offering to the well as being responsible for Child Number Two.
 
Daily Telegraph concentrated mainly on the phallus, which may have been added by landowner Denzil Holles 1641-1680 to get back at Cromwell after the Restoration. Could explains why Cerne Abbey previously tolerated the near-by chalk carving for so long. First written account of the Giant was in 1694 in a record of repairs to the figure. Victorians were said to have censored image of the carving, so in 1908 the Giant's navel was removed to enlarge the penis.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...d-cerne-abbas-giant-get-rise-oliver-cromwell/
 
A good report on the Rude Man's revealed age from the BBC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-57076224

"Soil samples from the Cerne Abbas Giant were analysed by scientists over 12 months to reveal the landmark's age.
The research also sparked a new theory that the Dorset giant was forgotten for generations after it was first sculpted and then later rediscovered.
Geoarchaeologist Mike Allen said the age result was "not what was expected".
He said: "Everyone was wrong and that makes these results even more exciting."
Soil samples from the giant's elbows and feet were extracted in March 2020 but the results were delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic....
...Scientists studied soil samples by using technology to show when individual grains of sand in the sediment were last exposed to sunlight.
Researchers said material taken from the deepest layer yielded a date range of AD700 to 1100, which suggested the giant was first made by late Saxons.
The Anglo-Saxon period lasted for 600 years, from 410 to 1066, before the middle ages.
But other samples suggested the giant was made at later dates of up to 1560, which left the archaeologists with a conundrum, due to the earliest documented record of the giant featuring in a church warden's account of repairing it in 1694."

Ah well, bang goes my own theory that he was a bawdy anti-Commonwealth 'welcome home!' to Charles II dating to the 1660s. As I'm rather into the Anglo-Saxons at the moment it's still rather pleasing to me :)
 
Solving the mystery was a Herculean task.

A centuries-old mystery surrounding the origins of a chalk giant hill figure has been unravelled by academics from Oxford University.

New research indicates the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset was originally carved as an image of Hercules to mark a muster station for West Saxon armies.

Speculation has long surrounded the figure, with some believing it could date back to prehistoric times. The academics said it was reinterpreted in the 11th Century by local monks. n 2021, tests carried out for the National Trust, which owns the site, revealed the giant had been carved in the Anglo-Saxon period and was not prehistoric, or more recent, as previously thought.

Dr Helen Gittos and Dr Thomas Morcom have been building on the discovery to uncover why the giant was created in the first place. They explained that Hercules was well known in the Middle Ages and there was a particular spike of interest in him during the 9th Century, at a time when the area was under attack by Vikings. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-67717015
 
Frideswide said:
I was given a sew-your-own Cerne Abbas Giant for Christmas!
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Soft toy or embroidery?
I have an embroidery of the feisty fella on my lounge wall.

What happened was, way back in the 80s I'd finished decorating my then lounge I was well pleased with the result when I stood back to admire it. However by the time I'd finished clearing up it all looked rather flat. Ah ha it was the removal of the green chair I'd been standing on that was the problem, the solution a green embroidered picture. I'd got a bit of green fabric and as I'd recently bought a copy of this LP

https://www.discogs.com/release/7334141-Tim-Laycock-Giant-At-Cerne

didn't have to think too, ahem ... hard ... about what to do!

Some young men who saw it soon afterwards accused me of doing it on purpose to make then feel inadequate ha! ha!
 
Spookdaddy said:
Get out of town!!
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I know I couldn't believe it when I found it while flicking through the record rack, like what you could do in the good old days. Well I wasn't going to leave it there was I? Took a chance and was richly rewarded. ;)
 
Sollywos said:
Soft toy or embroidery?
I have an embroidery of the feisty fella on my lounge wall.

What happened was, way back in the 80s I'd finished decorating my then lounge I was well pleased with the result when I stood back to admire it. However by the time I'd finished clearing up it all looked rather flat. Ah ha it was the removal of the green chair I'd been standing on that was the problem, the solution a green embroidered picture. I'd got a bit of green fabric and as I'd recently bought a copy of this LP

https://www.discogs.com/release/7334141-Tim-Laycock-Giant-At-Cerne

didn't have to think too, ahem ... hard ... about what to do!

Some young men who saw it soon afterwards accused me of doing it on purpose to make then feel inadequate ha! ha!
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So you looked at your wall one day, thought 'That wall looks a bit bare. That needs something that does?.' .. 'I know! .. an embroidered picture of a bloke holding a club with a hard on!!' ... excellent. :cool:
 
Swifty said:
That needs something that does?.'
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It was the green that was the driver of the project ... honest! I needed a good block of it with not too much distraction. Just some back stitched white lines and he has such a lovely friendly face ...whistle.
 
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