Provides a scientifically verified date for the Cerne Giant, revealing its origins in the Anglo-Saxon period and prompting new discussions on its historical and archaeological significance.

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.

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of figures and tables
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• Foreword: Our Cerne Giant by Kate Adie
• Part 1: The Cerne Giant: excavation and dating the Giant
  • 1. Place, person and context: an introduction to the Cerne Giant
  • 2. The new research: dating the Giant; reconnaissance, aims and methods
  • 3. Research results: fieldwork, dating and analysis
    • High resolution photogrammetric survey (3-D ground surface model) (Michael J. Allen)
    • Geophysical surveys (Andrew David, Tony Clark, Alister Bartlett, Paul Linford, Megan Clements and Paul Cheetham)
    • Excavation results (Michael J. Allen and Martin Papworth)
    • Auger surveys (Michael J. Allen)
    • Optically stimulated luminescence dating (Phillip Toms, Jamie Wood and Michael J. Allen)
    • The land-use history of a hillside: land mollusc evidence (Michael J. Allen)
    • Discussion and conclusions: putting the Giant in his place in the landscape (Michael J. Allen)
  • 4. The Giant and the early medieval history of Cerne
  • 5. Hide and seek on a Dorset hillside
  • 6. Know your Giant
  • 7. The Giant’s story: the archaeological results considered
    • Main conclusions
    • The date of the Giant
    • The sleeping Giant
    • At least two Giants
    • Outline and form
    • Recording scouring and maintenance activities
    • Conclusion
    • The Giant timeline (Brian Edwards and Michael J. Allen)
    • Acknowledgements
• Part 2: The Giant in context
  • 8. The Saxon Abbey of Cerne: an introduction to the Abbey and recent archaeological research
  • 9. The tenth-century Cerne Abbey: Benedictine ecclesiastical reform and land management
  • 10. The Cerne Giant: an antiquity on trial 1996; a summary
  • 11. Why did we think the Giant was ancient?
  • 12. Giant assumptions: locating chalk figures within prehistory
  • 13. Images of the Giant
  • 14. A research agenda for the Giant
• Part 3: Giant considerations: wider reflections on the results
  • 15. The Long Man of Wilmington: a progress report on a giant conundrum
  • 16. I will survive: the continuing story of the Uffington White Horse
  • 17. Two chalk giants: Wilmington and Cerne revisited
  • 18. Implications of the hill figure dates
  • 19. Heroes, kings and giants at assembly places
  • 20. Wiltshire’s chalk equine hill figures: what’s the problem?
  • 21. Hill figures in the landscape: contexts, survival and function
  • 22. Hill figures: retrospective and a national research agenda
• Appendices
  • Appendix 1: Description of Giant Hill and chalk grassland vegetation; loose insert in National Trust Management Plan November 1974
  • 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 Management Plan November 1974; Appendix 2, The Cerne Giant: Schedule of Works
  • Appendix 4: Location of OSL sample 1
• Bibliography