He's been a looming presence overlooking a Dorset village (England) for more than 330 years but now archaeologists are hoping to discover the true age of the mysterious Cerne Abbas Giant.
     The 55-metre naked chalk figure brandishing a giant club is perhaps the best-known chalk hill figure in Britain but its origin and purpose are shrouded in mystery. Theories range from an ancient spirituality symbol or likeness of Greco-Roman hero Hercules to a caricature of Oliver Cromwell, with the club a reference to repressive rule and the phallus a mockery of his puritanism.
     Local folklore has long held it to be a fertility aid and the earliest recorded mention of the giant dates from 1694. The giant chalk figure was gifted to the National Trust in 1920 by the Pitt-Rivers family and now the charity, together with the University of Gloucestershire, is undertaking tests to establish the iconic figure's age.
     Archaeologists have excavated small trenches to enable samples of soil to be extracted from points on the giant's elbows and feet. Over the coming weeks, Professor Phillip Toms, from the University of Gloucestershire, will attempt to date the samples using a technique called optically stimulated luminescence (OSL).
     Martin Papworth, a senior archaeologist at the National Trust, said: "The OSL technique is commonly used to determine when mineral grains in the soil were last exposed to sunlight. It was used to discover the age of the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire in the 1990s, which was found to be nearly 3,000-years-old - even more ancient than we had expected. We're expecting the results of the tests in July. It is likely that the tests will give us a date range, rather than a specific age, but we hope they will help us better understand, and care for, this famous landmark."
     In separate analysis, environmental archaeologist Mike Allen will analyse soil samples containing the microscopic shells of land snails to learn more about the site's past. "They should help us to discover whether the giant was created on a grazed chalk hillside, or whether people purposely cleared scrub to prepare the land for the figure," he said.
     Gordon Bishop, chairman of the Cerne Historical Society, said villagers were eagerly awaiting the results. "Although there are some who would prefer the giant's age and origins to remain a mystery, I think the majority would like to know at least whether he is ancient or no more than a few hundred-years-old," he said.

Edited from Evening Standard (23 March 2020)