Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
A Date with the Two Cerne Giants : Reinvestigating an Iconic British Hill Figure (The National Trust Excavations 2020), Paperback / softback Book

A Date with the Two Cerne Giants : Reinvestigating an Iconic British Hill Figure (The National Trust Excavations 2020) Paperback / softback

Edited by Michael J Allen

Paperback / softback

Pre-Order

Description

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.

Information

  • Pre-Order

  • Format:Paperback / softback
  • Pages:224 pages
  • Publisher:Oxbow Books
  • Publication Date:
  • Category:
  • ISBN:9781914427374
Save 12%

£24.95

£21.95

Pre-Order
Pre-Order
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information

  • Pre-Order

  • Format:Paperback / softback
  • Pages:224 pages
  • Publisher:Oxbow Books
  • Publication Date:
  • Category:
  • ISBN:9781914427374