Origins of Dorset hillside chalk figure was as muster station for West Saxon armies fending off Vikings, historians conclude
For centuries, historians and archaeologists have puzzled over the origins of the Cerne Abbas giant, the huge, naked, club-wielding figure cut into a chalky hillside in the English West Country. Was he a Celtic god, some sort of ancient fertility symbol, or, perhaps, a more recent lampoon of Oliver Cromwell?
Research from the University of Oxford has now concluded that the 60m tall figure in Dorset could have marked an inspiring muster station for West Saxon armies at a time when the area was being attacked by Viking warriors.
