GEOGLYPHS - GIANT CHALK FIGURE OF HERCULES IDENTIFIED AS SAXON MUSTERING SITE:

          

Cerne Abbas Giant, near the village of Cerne Abbas, Dorset, England. Online image, public domain.

Some of the world’s most famous geoglyphs are the chalk figures found in England. The Uffington White Horse, the Long Man of Wilmington, and perhaps the most famous of all the Cerne Abbas Giant.

“The Cerne Abbas Giant was formed by cutting trenches two feet deep into the steep hillside and then filling them with crushed chalk. Some scholars believed the giant might date back to the Iron Age as a fertility symbol. Local folklore holds that copulating on the giant’s crotch will help a couple conceive a child, and there is an Iron Age earthwork known as the Trendle at the top of the hill in which the giant has been carved. However, there is no mention of the figure in a 1540s survey of the Abbey lands, nor in a 1617 survey conducted by the English cartographer John Norden.” (Ouellette 2021)

Chalk-filled trench of Cerne Abbas Giant. Online image, publlc domain.

“A study conducted in 1996 observed alterations in certain characteristics over time. It concluded that when originally carved, the figure had a cloak draped over its left arm and potentially held an object, speculated to be a severed head beneath it is left hand. Tests conducted by the National Trust in 2021 determined that the giant was carved in the Anglo-Saxon period between AD 700-1100, when the land was owned by the West Saxon royal family in the 9^th Century and 10^th Century.” (Milligan 2024)

Sculpture depicting Hercules, late Roman, Corbridge, England. Corbridge Roman Town Museum. Photograph Copyright Carole Raddato.

This figure has since been recognized as a representation of the Classical Hercules. The draped cloak and severed head align with Classical representations of the demigod.

“The club is the clue, according to the new study. Hercules was one of the most frequently depicted figures in the classical world, and his distinctively knotted club acted as an identificatory label, like the keys of Saint Peter or the wheel of Saint Catherine. Hercules’ signature mantle—his cloak—may have also been included in the original Cerne Abbas outline, draped over the giant’s free hand, the researchers hypothesize.” (Anderson 2024)

“A further study by researchers from Oxford University now suggest that the figure was a muster station for West Saxon armies during a period when Saxon kingdoms were in conflict with invading Vikings. According to the researchers, the giant’s position, protruding from a ridge and situated near major route ways, combined with nearby fresh water souces and the locality to a West Saxon estate made it the perfect mustering spot.” (Milligan 2024)

So, perhaps now we know.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Anderson, Sonja, 2024, This mysterious Hillside Carving is Actually Hercules, Researchers Say, 2 January 2024, https://www.smithsonianmag.com. Accessed online 4 January 2024/

Milligan, Mark, 2024, Mystery of Cerne Abbas Giant solved?, 1 January 2024, https://www.heritagedaily.com. Accessed online 2 January 2024.

Morcom, Thomas and Helen Gittos, 2024, The Cerne Giant in Its Early Medieval Context, Speculum, Volume 99, Number 1, Published by University, https://doi.org/10.1086/727992. Accessed online 10 January 2024.

Ouellette, Jennifer, 2021, Archaeologists “flabbergasted” to find Cerne Giant’s origins a medieval, 12 July 2021, Ars Technica, https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/. Accessed online 10 January 2024.                                       

 

 

 

 

ANCIENT ROMAN GRAFFITI WAS INSULTING TOO – POOR SECUNDINUS:

 There have been a few times when I desperately wanted to leave obscene graffiti for a boss or co-worker, but I never have. Apparently the ancient Roman soldiers who occupied Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall in upper England had less restraint. At least one of them carved his attitude towards another in stone.

Vindolanda, England. Internet photograph, public domain.

“Vindolanda (translated as ‘white field’ or ‘white moor’) was a Roman auxiliary fort, situated on the fringes of the Roman Empire near Hadrian’s Wall to guard a major highway called the Stanegate. No less than nine Roman forts were built of timber or stone at Vindolands from around AD 85 to AD 370, creating one of the most complex archaeological sites in Britain and a unique cultural legacy of frontier life.” (HeritageDaily 2022) These were not primitive camps for the troops, but fairly sophisticated villages with eventual stone-built buildings, and a full life for their inhabitants, including apparently a busy social life.

A birthday party invitation from Claudia Severa to Sulpicia Lepidina. Image thevintagenews.com

“Nestled in the picturesque Northumberland countryside, Vindolanda with its fort and settlement is a treasure trove of everyday life during the Roman occupation of Britain and beyond. What makes this part of the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site so exceptional, is that some of the nearly 2,000-year-old artefacts uncovered reveal human emotions and feelings. Perhaps the most famous example is the handwritten birthday invitation where one woman very politely requests that her ‘dearest sister’ join her to celebrate her birthday.”  (Galloway 2022) At Vindolanda, the soil has a high content of clay which seals off oxygen from buried items, leaving to the survival of a wide range of artifacts made with perishable materials that just do not survive in most other contexts.

Dylan Herbert with his discovery at Vindolanda. Illustration from BBC.

“The latest discovery made at Vindolanda gives us a fascinating window into the emotions of someone in the 3^rd century, and this time they are not so polite. Dylan Herbert, a retired Biochemist from South Wales made the discovery on 19^th May, towards the end of his second week volunteering on the excavations. Dylan commented ‘I’d been removing a lot of rubble all week and to be honest this stone had been getting in my way. I was glad when I was told I could take it out of the trench. It looked from the back like all the others, a very ordinary stone, but when I turned it over, I was startled to see some clear letters. Only after we removed the mud did I realize the full extent of what I’d uncovered, and I was absolutely delighted.’” (Galloway 2022)

Secundinus "the Shitter." Illustration Vindolanda Trust.

“The stone is fairly small, measuring 40 cm wide by 15 cm tall (15 inches by 6 inches). Experts in Roman epigraphy recognized the lettering as a mangled version of Secundinus cacator, which translates into (ahem) ‘Secundinus, the shitter.’ The penus image merely added insult to injury – a clever subversion of the traditional interpretation of a phallus as a positive symbol of fertility. The Vindolanda site now has 13 phallic carvings, more than have been discovered at any other dig site along Hadrian’s wall.” (Ouellette 2022)

“Dr. Andrew Birley, Director of Excavations and CEO of the Vindoland Trust commented: ‘The recovery of an inscription, a direct message from the past, is always a great event on a Roman excavation, but this one really raised our eyebrows when we deciphered the message on the stone. It’s author clearly had a big problem with Secundinus and was confident enough to announce their thoughts publicly on a stone. I have no doubt that Secundinus would have been less than amused to see this when he was wandering around the site over 1,700 years ago.’” (Galloway 2022) Having always heard that Roman discipline was quite strict, and often brutal, I have to wonder if this message points to resentment from someone whom Secundinus had disciplined, or was perhaps going to lead to a session of such discipline for handing such an insult to Secundinus.

NOTE: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Galloway, Sonya, 2022, Ancient Graffiti Uncovered, 26 May 2022, https://www.vindolanda.com/news/ancient-graffiti, accessed on 7 July 2022.

HeritageDaily, 2022, Ancient graffiti insulting “Secundinus, the shitter” discovered at Roman Vindolanda, https://www.heritagedaily.com/2022/06/ancient-graffiti-insulting-secundinus-the-shitter-discovered-at-roman-vindolanda/143777, accessed on 13 July 2022.

Ouellette, Jennifer, 2022, Ancient Roman soldier carved a phallus with a personal insult in this stone, 15 June 2022, https://arstechnica.com/science, accessed on 11 July 2022.

BRONZE AGE CARVED STONES FROM ORKNEY - FIGURINES OR WHAT?

Two of the figurines

before cleaning.

Photo - finstown.orkney

Over the past few years enigmatic shaped rocks have been recovered on the British island of Orkney. The team discovering them has dubbed them "human figurines."

Photo - finstown.orkney

Compared to Paleolithic carvings, or other bronze age stone carvings from elsewhere, these are laughable - loom weights or fishing weights perhaps? I just don't see human figures in these.

"Figurine" shown in situ

next to hearth.

finstown.orkney

Perhaps they served as "deadmen" buried in the floor to tie cords to for holding something upright. Indeed, this quote gives one such possibility. "Some of the objects look remarkably like stylized representations of the human form whilst others look more like stones set upright into the floor of a Bronze Age building excavated by EASE Archaeology at the links of Noltland, Westray. These may have been used to tie mooring ropes onto, to help hold the roof on." (Heritagedaily 2019)

Internet photo.

"Dating the necked stones firmly will require further work, since they have also been found on Iron Age sites in Orkney. On initial evidence, the ones from Finstown possibly date to around the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, roughly 2000 BC. Identifying the purpose of these stones, and if they are figurines, will also require further work, with a close study for abrasion, wear, and any other marks on these anthropomorphic objects." (Lisle 2019)

Note the smoothed neck

as if abraded by a

rope tied around it.

Internet photo.

I am tempted to think that these so-called "figurines" represent another example of pareidolia in rock art. On both March 2 and March 9, 2019, I wrote about the phenomena of pareidolia and mimetoliths in rock art. "This is manifested in pareidolia (recognizing ponies in the clouds, for instance), and also by fascination with mimetoliths (items that naturally look like something else - mimic them)." (Faris 2019)

"Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus, usually an image or a sound, by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists. Common examples are perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations, the Man in the Moon, the Moon rabbit, hidden messages in recorded music played in reverse or at high- or lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing indistinct voices in random noise such as that produced by air conditioners or fans." (Wikipedia)

Whatever these pieces of rock recovered in Orkney actually are, I certainly cannot see human figures in any of them, and so I have to classify them as mimetoliths, and examples of pareidolia manifested within the discoverers imaginations. Perhaps the "further work" mentioned above will provide enough information to better guess the purpose of these rocks.

REFERENCES:

Anonymous,

2019 A Team From ORCA Archaeology Has Discovered An Amazing Series of Half-Metre Tall Stone-Carved Objects, Heritage Daily, https://www.heritagedaily.com/2019/12/nine-possible-bronze-age-figurines-unearthed-at-substation-excavation-in-orkney/124965

Faris, Peter

2019 Are These Ute Wooden Maps? - or Apophenia - Pareidolia - Mimetoliths - Manuports, March 9, 2019, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com

2019 Pareidolia, March 2, 2019, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com

Lisle, Sean

2019 Nine Possible Bronze Age Figurine Unearthed at Substation Excavation in Orkney?, University of the Highlands Archaeology Institute, https://archaeologyorkney.com/2019/12/06/ nine-possible-bronze-age-figurines-unearthed-at-substation-excavation-in-orkney/

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia)

THE UFFINGTON CHALK HORSE - A SPECIAL ENGLISH GEOGLYPH:

Uffington White Horse, England.

Photograph Wikipedia,

Public Domain.

One uncommon type of geoglyph is known as a chalk figure. These are found in few locations because they can only be created under special conditions. In southeastern England areas where the topsoil overlays chalk or white limestone they are most common, and are primarily created by cutting away the layer of vegetation and topsoil on a hillside to expose the white rock underneath.

The oldest known chalk figure is the Uffington Horse in the county of Oxfordshire. "Documents as early as the eleventh century refer to the "White Horse Hill" at Uffington ("mons albi equi"), and archaeological work has dated the Uffington White Horse to the Bronze Age." (Wikipedia)

Measuring 110 meters long, it is archaeologically dated to the Late Bronze or Iron Age at 1380-550 B.C. Many archaeologists believe that it was originally created as a sign of ownership of the area by a local group, although University of Southampton archaeologist Joshua Pollard disagrees. "Both the form and the setting of the site led Pollard to

conclude that the White Horse was originally created as a depiction of a "solar horse," a creature found in the mythology of many ancient Indo-European cultures. These people believed that the sun either rode a horse or was drawn by one in a chariot across the sky." (Powell 2017:9)

The secret to its longevity is that local people have maintained the figure. "Over time, though its original purpose was lost, local people have maintained a connection with the White Horse that ensured its continued existence. "If it weren't maintained, the White Horse would be overgrown and disappear in about 20 years," says Andrew Foley, a ranger with the National Trust, which oversees the site. Historical records indicate the local community has long geld regular festivals devoted to maintaining the site. In 1854, some 30,000 people attended. Now, each summer, a few hundred local volunteers week the white horse and then crush fresh chalk on top of it so that it keeps the same brilliant white appearance it has had for 3,000 years." (Powell 2017:10)

This may be the origin of the custom of many college towns in the United States of creating a giant letter on a hillside with rocks and annually repainting it white with the labor of fraternity pledges, the football team, or freshman volunteers. On October 1, 2016, I posted Hillside Initials As Modern Geoglyphs about a number of these modern geoglyphs.

I think that too much attention is paid to the form of the Uffington Horse which is admittedly quite abstract. Given an age of 3,397-2,567 years, the Uffington Horse must have been renewed many hundreds of times, with no precise measuring tools, and only volunteer labor. If shapes and lines moved only a fraction of an inch during each renewal the original shape must have been altered considerably by now, so speculating based upon its appearance is bound to be unproductive. Better we appreciate it for what it is, a special example of people's relationship with their land, and caring for its historical features.

NOTE: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet in a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the originals at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westbury_White_Horse

http://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/hillside%20letters

Powell, Eric A.,

2017 White Horse Of The Sun, Archaeology Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 5., September/October 2017, p. 9-10.