Art Sunday, Ancient Art

 

Thank you to every one who participated in Art Sunday last week and I hope you can find the time to enter again this week. The theme for this week is Ancient Art, which could be anything from ancient times, ancient civilisations and ancient peoples. . When I chose the theme I didn’t know it had been a theme sometime last year and if any one is a bit disappointed at having the theme repeated I can only apologise.  Please leave your link in the comments below so that every one can do the ‘tour’. I hope to get mine up this evening or tomorrow morning. Looking forward to seeing every ones contribution. Have just found this link (thank you Heidi) and as it is very relevant to the topic am leaving it here. If you have not already followed this I suggest you do, it is quite amazing.

 

Link: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

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ART SUNDAY; ANCIENT ART, WHITE CHALK FIGURES

Here is mine, at last, I’m quite sure this will sound very silly but………………….I have no idea why I chose ‘Ancient Art’, because I had no idea what I was going to do for it, and once I sat and thought about it, I realised I didn’t actually know very much about Ancient Art!! How silly is that??

Anyway I browsed the internet, hunted through my books, sat and thought, then thought some more and this is what I eventually came up with. Ancient hillside chalk figures.

The creation of hill figures has been practised since prehistory and can include human ("gigantotomy") and animal forms (cutting horses is known as "leucippotomy") as well as more abstract symbols and, in the modern era, advertising brands.

The reasons for the creation for the figures are varied and obscure. The Uffington Horse probably held religious significance, whereas the Cerne Abbas giant might well have been a work of political satire. The figures are usually created by the cutting away of the top layer of relatively poor soil on suitable hillsides. This exposes the white chalk beneath, which contrasts well with the short green hill grass, and the image is clearly visible for a considerable distance. Despite some of the figures being of great age, they are at the same time relatively new. The figures need to be maintained to stay visible, and local people often work to restore their local landmark on a regular basis, thereby continuing an unbroken tradition.

 

 

Uffington White Horse

Contrary to popular belief, most white chalk figures and horses are not of great antiquity. Only the Uffington White Horse (above) is of certain prehistoric origin, being some three thousand years old. Most of the others date from the last three hundred years or so. The Uffington Horse is dated to the Bronze age or beyond. ‘’Uffington White Horse (Bronze Age, 1400 BC to 600 BC)’’

The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human development when the most advanced metalworking included techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring copper and tin ores. By melting those metals together a bronze alloy could be created and then used to cast bronze artifacts.

The attraction of the chalk for people in pre-history lay in the bands of flint it contains. Flint axes would have allowed ancient people to clear the forests that once covered the downs. It has been concluded (by some) that these people cut the White Horse of Uffington because of the religious and military importance of the horse at that time. But, it has also been debated whether the chalk figure was ever intended to represent a horse at all  or some other animal.  However it has been known as a horse since the eleventh century. An Abingdon cartulary, written by monks on vellum, between 1072 and 1084, refers to "mons albi equi" at Uffington ("the White Horse Hill").

The horse is also thought to represent a tribal symbol perhaps connected with the builders of Uffington Castle. Due to the angle of the slope it is carved on, only a small part of the horse can be seen at a time by an observer standing on the ground, which indicates a religious or magical significance to the figure.

The Long Man of Wilmington, Sussex

The Long Man of Wilmington, Sussex, although believed by some to be 16C, could also be ancient, and archaeologists have tried to date it by using the same technique as used at Uffington. They look for layers of chalk fragments that could have been washed down during construction, and dating the soil just underneath by a process called Optically Stimulated Luminescence. Some fragments of red Roman tile have been found sprinked within the outline of the ‘long Man’ in one of its previous 19C investigations.  It was noted in the Eastbourne Gazette of April 29^th 1874 that during the restoration with  yellow bricks, fragments of 'Roman Brick' were discovered. Why these fragments are there is not clear but they were found well above the base of the trench indicating the trench was initially dug before the Roman period and had not been properly scoured after it. If these 19C archaeological investigations can be relied upon, ( and they probably can’t) it is possible these tile fragments were some attempt by the Romans to stamp out whatever cult they had come across in the area by defiling the image. But only speculation is possible.  It is fairly certain from the position of the fragments and the lack of other Roman features (other than roads in the area), that the giant was not Roman in origin. The problem with using these fragments to assign a specific date comes from the continual movement of soil down the hill, in a process known as 'soil creep'.

 

 

There are several prehistoric burials above the Giant sometimes going by the name of Giants Grave. One theory suggests the long barrow is actually a spoil heap from the nearby mining but that theory doesn't explain the straightness of the barrow and the ditches around it. There is another long barrow just to the east on Wilmington Hill called "Hunters Burgh". There are also bronze age round barrows, including a particularly large bowl barrow (135 feet diameter) just above the giant, and a smaller barrow (45 feet diameter) to the east of the giant. The first round barrow contained a high status burial and finds (now lost), but the barrow itself is believed to have belonged to a late Neolithic or bronze age chief. Despite the fact that this ‘Giant’ is not absolutely dated as an ancient chalk figure, all of this circumstantial evidence points toward it having an ancient origin.

Cerne Abbas giant, DORCHESTER

(popularly believed to be ancient, but more recently believed to date from 17C)

Cut into the hillside near to the village of Cerne Abbas, just outside Dorchester, the Cerne Abbas Giant is an imposing figure of male fertility, the 180 ft high chalk figure takes the shape of a man brandishing a club. The origins of the Giant are not certain. At one time it was believed to be another bronze age figure. Then it was believe to represent the Roman god, Hercules, and be over 1500 years old. The figure does bear a resemblance to representations of the hero Hercules - naked and wielding a club, found on Romano-British archaeological finds from Norfolk. I support of this theory, there was a cult of Hercules in the region during the reign of Emperor Cammodus from 180-193 AD. If Cerne is Hercules then it would have been cut in 191 AD. However, there is no known record of him before 1694. Another theory about his origins is that he is the  Celtic God Nodens. Evidence for this theory comes from a Celtic bronze skillet or bowl handle, which was found in a field near Hod Hill, a Celtic Hill fort. The decoration on the handle is of a naked male figure identified as Nodens and is very similar to the Cerne Giant. Legend has it that a particularly strong pagan faith was practised in the area which would support it being celtic in origin. Another theory is the figure could have been cut during the English Civil War by Clubmen or "Club Risers", bands of men armed with clubs who formed to stop Civil War soldiers looting. Traditional legend says that he was a giant that had been terrorizing the local people. When he lay down to sleep they took their opportunity to kill him and they carved his outline into the chalk. However, local people say that it was cut in 1539 when the monastery was dissolved and the giant is its last corrupt Abbot, Thomas Corton. The phallus represents his lust and the club symbolizes revenge. His feet are pointing out of the area, which was where he was heading

So is the giant Nodens a Celtic God?  or Hercules, a roman God?,, or a civil war ‘Clubman’? or a corrupt lustful, vengeful and fleeing Abbot?? Or perhaps none of the above??? Whatever the truth, he is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the care of The National Trust.

Science may have proven that the vast majority of these white chalk figures are only a few hundred years old, but it seems extraordinary to believe the only one of these figures to have EVER been produced during the Bronze age is the Uffington Horse. As far as I know Bronze age people didn’t produce one of a kind, they tended to find something that worked for them and stick to it for a while. To me, this just means that if Uffington is the only Bronze age one we have, the others must have been ‘lost’ over time. A chalk figure carved into a hill side is a pretty fragile piece of work, it needs constant maintenance  to remain visible, in which case it’s not surprising  they have been ‘lost’ over time. I like to think of them as the forerunners to the great wall frescoes we all know and love so well.

have put all the photos together in an album

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/78/art_Sunday_Ancient_Art_white_chalk_figures