Leucipotomy is the art of carving white horses onto hillsides. It’s a centuries old practice, with the horses created though cutting away grass and soil to reveal white chalk underneath. And south-west England happens to have the most chalk horses out of anywhere in the world.
The oldest of those? The 3,000-year-old Uffington White Horse – an abstract, minimalist depiction of the animal that sits atop Whitehorse Hill in Oxfordshire. And it’s just been given a major facelift.
Archeologists from the National Trust and Oxford Archaeology recently proved that parts of the ancient art installation have narrowed over time due to grass growing around it and slippage of topsoil. Together, they returned the horse back to its former glory by carefully cutting back the grass and redistributing some of the top layer of chalk.
There are plenty of theories around the horse’s original purpose, experts reckon it could have been a way of marking territory or a tribal symbol but they don’t know for sure.
Adrian Cox, an archaeologist at the National Trust, said: ‘What we do know is that through the efforts of generations of local people, the horse has been cared for, allowing it to survive for thousands of years to become an iconic feature of this landscape.’
Mark Dodd, a project manager at Oxford Archaeology, added: ‘Now the hard work is done, and we can see elements of the monument restored to its former glory, we will be eagerly awaiting the results of research to see what new information this will bring to light.’
Historic Britain
There are fascinating slices of history all across the UK. And a lot of work and money goes into making sure they stay around for future generations to enjoy. In the latest heritage news, there’s these rare historic WW1 training trenches, this tower near Bath that has just had a £4 million makeover and this thousand-year-old English castle just revealed a new secret entrance.
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