For centuries, the Cerne Giant, a figure carved into a hillside in Dorset, has fascinated locals and visitors to the area. A new paper proposes that the Cerne Giant can in fact be dated to the early Middle Ages, and, as a result, its cultural context and significance more clearly understood.
For centuries, the Cerne Giant, a figure carved into a hillside in Dorset depicting a nude man carrying a club and stretching some 180 feet high, has fascinated locals and visitors to the area. The history of the giant, however, and in particular, its age, has long been a mystery. A new paper inproposes that the Cerne Giant can in fact be dated to the early Middle Ages, and, as a result, its cultural context and significance more clearly understood.
This dating breakthrough also sheds new light on various historical interpretations of the Cerne Giant's identity. Many scholars had posited that the giant was modeled on the myth of Hercules, and although, as the authors write,"t first glance, an early medieval date seems odd for a figure which looks like the classical god Hercules," there was in fact a swell of interest in the Greek hero during the ninth century, lending credence to this hypothesis.
The new findings concerning the Cerne Giant's age and history make greater sense of this string of theories regarding its identity. Ultimately, as the authors write, this complicated biography is all"part of the history of the giant and what continues to attract so many people to him."Although the giant panda is in practice a herbivore, its masticatory system functions differently from the other herbivores. Through the processes of natural selection, the giant panda's dietary .
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