[imagesource: National Trust Images / Mike Calnan / James Dobson]

Two new discoveries have come to light recently about the Cerne Abbas Giant, the UK’s largest chalk figure carved into a hill in the countryside.

First, the 55-metre-tall naked man may not have always been naked and well-endowed.

Second, the figure is much younger than historians and archaeologists expected.

Per CNN, scientists used optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to check when the sand had last been exposed to sunlight, and the results of the sediment analysis showed the figure is likely an Anglo Saxon creation dating to medieval times:

“This is not what was expected. Many archaeologists and historians thought he was prehistoric or post-medieval, but not medieval,” said Mike Allen, an independent geoarchaeologist who was part of the project.

“Everyone was wrong, and that makes these results even more exciting,” he said.

One theory of why this figure exists, as per ArtNet, is that the figure depicts an Anglo Saxon god known as “Heil” or “Helith” or even “Helis”, as one 18th century historian wrote.

The area nearby, Cerne Abbey, was founded 987 AD, possibly to help convert the locals who worshipped such gods to the Catholic faith:

“He could have had a pagan symbolism,” National Trust senior archaeologist Martin Papworth [said].

Here’s a video with more information from the National Trust:

Moving on to the matter of his pants, or lack thereof.

A survey was conducted using a remote-sensing technique called lidar (or light detection and ranging, which produces detailed models of terrain) and revealed that the figure might have once been wearing pants.

Papworth said that they found the line of the giant’s belt originally continued straight across, uninterrupted by the large penis visible today:

“You could argue that he had trousers on originally and later on, perhaps as late as the 17th century, the penis was incorporated,” Papworth told the London Times.

“It may not be such a shocking thing to have had him on the hillside in the medieval period because he may have had trousers on. That is likely.”

The outfit change may have simply been a practical joke:

“There were a few characters who owned the land in the 17th century, the sort of people who might well have graffitied to change him into a figure of fun,” Papworth added.

Papworth also mentioned that they can’t determine when the penis was added as they haven’t done any excavations in that area yet.

It looks like this is an area of interest, though, so perhaps the National Trust should do some digging there soon.

[sources:cnn&artnetnews]