When travelling in the United Kingdom, especially in the south, it’s possible that you have noticed some giant white figures in the landscape
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landscape:
paisaje
. These figures were created by cutting into the hillside
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hillside:
ladera
to reveal the rock underneath
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underneath:
por debajo
– usually white chalk
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chalk:
pizarra
. This kind of geographical art, known as a ‘geoglyph
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geoglyph:
geoglifo
’ is designed to be seen from a great distance, perhaps from the air, or even with something like Google Maps. That’s quite strange if you consider that this ancient craft
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craft:
técnica, arte
dates back
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to date back:
datar, remontarse
to prehistoric times.
THE WHITE HORSE
The oldest chalk-cut hill figure in Britain is the Uffington White Horse. It is an enormous abstract figure, the size of a football field
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football field:
campo de fútbol
, situated on a hill in Oxfordshire. Recent carbon dating
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carbon dating:
datación por carbono
has proved that it is around three thousand years old. Nobody knows exactly why it was made, but the sun rises behind it and, in Celtic art, horses are often seen pulling the chariot
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chariot:
carroza
of the sun.
THE RIDING KING
Chalk horses are quite common, with at least twenty-four across Britain, although some can no longer
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no longer:
ya no
be seen. However, only the Osmington White Horse – a 79-meter figure on the South Dorset Downs – has a rider
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rider:
jinete
. This figure was carved
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to carve:
tallar, esculpir
in 1808 in honour of King George III, who was a regular visitor to the nearby town of Weymouth. Unfortunately, the compliment
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compliment:
cumplido, halago
went wrong
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to go wrong:
salir mal
. According to legend, King George was offended because the horse seems to be riding away from Weymouth, and he never visited the town again.
THE LONG MAN
Because of his minimalist shape
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shape:
forma
, the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex was believed for many years to have originated in the Iron Age
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Iron Age:
Edad de Hierro
or even the Neolithic period. However, more recent studies indicate that it was probably created in the 16th or 17th century. If the head and top half
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top half:
mitad superior
of the body seem long and rather large, this is part of a clever
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clever:
ingeniosa
optical illusion. When viewed from below, at the foot of the hill, the figure appears in proportion.
THE RUDE MAN OF CERNE
Perhaps the most famous hill figure is the anatomically impressive Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, also known as the ‘rude man’ of Cerne. There has been a lot of debate over the origins of this fifty-five-metre figure holding a club
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club:
garrote, porra
. Early antiquarians thought he represented an Anglo-Saxon deity
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deity:
divinidad
. Others believed him to be a representation of the Roman god Hercules. Some people have suggested an association with a fertility cult, and others believe that he was carved during the 17th century English Civil War, as a caricature of controversial political leader Oliver Cromwell
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SPEAK UP EXPLAINS
Controversial political leader Oliver Cromwell
"El polémico líder político Oliver Cromwell". En 1649, tras el fin de la guerra civil inglesa que enfrentó a las fuerzas monárquicas contra las parlamentarias, se declaró la república, la única en la historia del país, que duró hasta 1660, cuando se restauró la monarquía de los Estuardo. Cromwell, que provenía de la gentry –la ‘pequeña nobleza agraria’–, fue un hábil estratega y líder político del bando parlamentarista.
. Whatever the truth
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whatever the truth:
cualquiera que sea la verdad
, the ‘rude man’ certainly remains impressive!
