Synopsis

Geoglyphs are a worldwide artistic phenomenon. The earliest ones are prehistoric. Join Em and Dr. Jesse as they look at the origins of two well-known geoglyphs in the UK.

Sources

The Uffington White Horse geoglyph as sun-horse by Joshua Pollard in Antiquity 91 356 (2017): 406–420.
Here is the National Trust site for the Horse.
Here is Smithsonian magazine article on the dating of the horse, and here is Archaeology Magazine’s article on the Horse.
Here is the main archaeology article about the Horse: “Uffington White Horse and Its Landscape: Investigations at White Horse Hill, Uffington, 1989–95, and Tower Hill, Ashbury, 1993–4” by David Miles et al.
“The Cerne Giant in Its Early Medieval Context” by Thomas Morcom and Helen Gittos in Speculum, volume 99, number 1, January 2024 (1-38).

Notes

1/ “The horse was rechalked this year” = 2024. [https://archaeologymag.com/2024/07/britains-oldest-chalk-figure-restored/] I’m so behind.

2/ Here is the Smithsonian magazine article on the dating of the horse.

3/ Check out the horse’s picture on Wikipedia!

4/ Here is a Bodleian library blog about the Sheldon tapestries, with a close up of the Horse and a full image of the tapestry fragments for context. (The Horse is in the top left of the large bottom fragment if you zoom in.)

5/ We did an episode on Beowulf! Episode 56.

6/ “This just came out in January 2024” Oh god I’m so behind.

7/ The Cerne Abbas Giant’s Wikipedia page has been updated!

8/ The Chair of St Peter.

9/ Cerne Abbey.

St Eadwold (c835-c900).

Goscelin (c1040-c1106), the possible author of Eadwold’s hagiography.

Walter of Coventry (fl 1290).

10/ Here is the Long Man of Wilmington, even though he is modern!