[HN Gopher] Archaeologists "flabbergasted" to find Cerne Giant's...
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       Archaeologists "flabbergasted" to find Cerne Giant's origins are
       medieval
        
       Author : diodorus
       Score  : 26 points
       Date   : 2021-07-15 05:35 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | dogorman wrote:
       | > _That would explain why he doesn't appear in the abbey records
       | or in Tudor surveys. "_
       | 
       | Perhaps this figure was simply considered too rude to write
       | about.
        
       | dash2 wrote:
       | I was so pleased to hear that the cock was a later addition. I
       | feel a tiny bit of national pride to know that my ancestors,
       | seeing the Cerne Giant, thought "you know what that needs? A big
       | old stiffie."
        
         | ntrz wrote:
         | I've read that the dick had originally been sized more
         | proportionately to the figure, but at some point it was merged
         | with a large circular belly button, increasing its size/length.
         | 
         | I wonder whether that is the result the article is referring
         | to, or whether there was an initial project to add a penis to
         | the figure, followed by a distinct "this penis needs to be
         | longer" revision later on.
        
       | quercusa wrote:
       | "If your geoglyph lasts more than 500 years..."
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | teruakohatu wrote:
       | > indicating that the giant was probably first made by late
       | Saxons sometime between 700 and 1100 CE. However, other samples
       | indicate a later date of around 1560--still predating the first
       | recorded mention of the giant in the 1694 church warden's
       | account.
       | 
       | I still think the later date is much more likely. That nobody in
       | England bothered to mention the giant for nearly 1000 years seems
       | very unlikely.
        
         | theshrike79 wrote:
         | People didn't write stuff down at that time. The English forgot
         | that the Romans used to rule the land and built a bunch of
         | stuff...
        
         | antihero wrote:
         | Who knows, perhaps we were hungover?
        
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       (page generated 2021-07-16 23:00 UTC)