New study reveals British giant statue may be from 1,000 years ago

The mysterious Cerne Abbas Giant on a hillside.

There is a mysterious Cerne Abbas Giant on a hillside in Dorset, England. No one knows who carved it out and when. Scientists have offered many speculations, some suggesting prehistoric times, some suggesting the British Stone Age, some suggesting the Roman period, and some suggesting it was built in the 17th century.

A recently published study suggests something different from all these speculations: it should have been built in the 10th century AD. “Nobody guessed correctly,” says geologist Mike Allen, one of the members involved in this new study.

The Colossus of Senna Abbas is located on a huge, steep hillside in northern Dorset and stands 55 meters tall and 51 meters wide. He holds a 37-meter-long rod in his right hand. The portrait was formed by a trench of 30 centimeters in height and width cut into the hillside and then filled with white chalk dust.

The researchers this time took chalk dust and soil samples from deep within the grooves of the figure’s feet and elbows, using an optical technique to trace when the material was last exposed to sunlight.

The results show that the oldest chalk dust dates back to between 650 and 1310 A.D.; the oldest soil dates back to about 700 to 1100 A.D. Allen said, “(The date this effigy was built) doesn’t get much older than that.”

Interestingly, a prominent local Catholic church, Benedictine monastery, was built in the late 10th century. This was a period when some previously non-Catholic categories of faith were declining and Catholicism was becoming popular. This study suggests that the figure may have been built by pagans at the time to express their discontent with Catholicism.

In addition, the earliest mention of this figure in the documents that can be found now is in 1694. This study suggests that this may be because the figure was built, covered by tall weeds, and forgotten for a long time, until it was found again, cleaned, and filled with new chalk dust to make it visible again.

However, Timothy Darvill, a professor of archaeology at Bournemouth University (UK), still thinks it’s possible the figure was built prehistorically, and believes it’s common for prehistoric relics to be forgotten and then excavated for restoration or alteration. Even Stonehenge (for a long time) didn’t get much attention, he says.”

Britain originally had many of these large, trench-formed forms on the hillside, some human and some animal, but now only three remain. The giant statue of Senna Abbas is one of them.

The other two are the Long Man in Wilmington and the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire. So far, only the Uffington White Horse has been confirmed to be from prehistoric times.