
Cerne Abbas Giant: Snails show chalk hill figure 'not prehistoric' - pepys
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-53313064
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rwmj
For context, it is fairly well-established through historical records that the
figure is not ancient, but was made perhaps in the 17th century as a satirical
portrait of Oliver Cromwell [there are other theories]. So it's unlike the
really prehistoric horse figures (eg
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse)).
Good to have the snails confirm this!

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KineticLensman
> Early antiquarians linked the giant with the Anglo-Saxon deity Helis, others
> have said he is the classical hero Hercules, while some believe he was
> carved during the English Civil War as a parody of Oliver Cromwell.

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KineticLensman
Cerne Abbas [0]. One of the few entire hills in the UK that is arguably NSFW
and certain elderly aunts.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbas_Giant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbas_Giant)

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bartread
I grew up in Dorchester, only a few miles away from Cerne Abbas. During
primary school, when I was 7 years old, we went on a field trip there. The
giant's anatomy led to some fairly obvious questions from my classmates and me
that were never satisfactorily answered.

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jjk166
It's amazing to me that our civilization could lose record of something like
this so quickly. Like imagine if someone just stumbled upon a 30 foot tall
nude statue which kinda looks like richard nixon and no one had any idea who
made it or how long it had been there.

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rsynnott
> There has also been a suggestion his significant anatomy is in fact the
> result of merging a smaller penis with a representation of his navel during
> a re-cut by the Victorians.

Well, before the invention of email spam, they had to advertise those pills
_somehow_.

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poma88
That gut feeling of looking at something fake...

Same with the Golden Hat discussed here before.

Is the medieval period more prone for attribution of fabrications?

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rsynnott
I don't think it could be said to be fake as such. It's likely that no-one was
pretending when it was constructed that it was particularly old; it's just
that people much later on assumed it was old because it was similar to other
old stuff.

