The origin and age of the figure are unclear, and archaeological evidence suggests that parts of it have been lost, altered, or added, over time; the earliest written record dates to the late 17th century.

Early antiquarians associated it, albeit on little evidence, with a Saxon deity, while other scholars sought to identify it with a Romano-British figure of Hercules (or some syncretisation of the two).

[11] Writing in 1901 in the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Henry Colley March noted that: "The Cerne Giant presents five characteristics: (1) It is petrographic ...

[15][16] The Giant sports a notably vertical erection, some 11 metres (36 feet) long (nearly the length of its head), along with a visible scrotum and testicles;[17] it has been called "Britain's most famous phallus".

[33] Like several other chalk figures carved into the English countryside, the Cerne Abbas Giant is often thought of as an ancient creation but its written history cannot be traced back further than the late 17th century.

[35] The earliest known written reference is a 4 November 1694 entry in the churchwarden's accounts from St Mary's Church in Cerne Abbas, which reads "for repairing ye Giant, three shillings".

Derivative versions subsequently appeared in the October 1763 St James Chronicle, the July 1764 Gentleman's Magazine[39][41] and the 1764 edition of The Annual Register.

[50] 18th century antiquarians were able to discover little about the figure's origin: Stukeley suggested that local people "know nothing more of [the Giant] than a traditionary account of its being a deity of the ancient Britons".

[54] Several other local traditions have, however, been recorded, including that the Giant was cut in 1539 at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries as a "humiliating caricature" of Cerne Abbey's final abbot Thomas Corton, who amongst other offences was accused of fathering children with a mistress.

[55][56] Hutchins, noting the apparent figure "748" then visible between the Giant's feet, suggested that if this did not refer to the date of an earlier repair such as "1748", it could be a representation of Cenric, the son of Cuthred, King of Wessex, who died in battle in 748: Arabic numerals however did not come widely into use in England until the 15th century.

[57] Another 18th century writer dismissed it as "the amusement of idle people, and cut with little meaning, perhaps, as shepherds' boys strip off the turf on the Wiltshire plains.

This theory originated in the 18th century account of John Hutchins, who noted in a letter of 1751 to the Dean of Exeter that the steward of the manor had told him the figure "was a modern thing, cut out in Lord Hollis' time".

[8] In his History and antiquities of the county of Dorset, first published in 1774, Hutchins also suggested that Holles could perhaps have ordered the recutting of an existing figure dating from "beyond the memory of man".

As this date coincides with the founding of nearby Cerne Abbey, archaeologist Alison Sheridan speculated that it may have been a challenge to the new religion from the still-pagan local inhabitants,[72][73] although other scholars have noted that early medieval monks could equally have been responsible for the figure.

[74] Other samples, however, gave later dates ranging up to 1560; one possible explanation is that the Giant may have first been cut in the late Saxon period, but then abandoned for several centuries.

[21] In 1920, the giant and the 4,000 square metres (0.99 acres) site where it stands were donated to the National Trust by its then land-owners, Alexander and George Pitt-Rivers,[75] and it is now listed as a Scheduled Monument.

[79] However, in 2008 a lack of sheep, coupled with a wet spring causing extra plant growth, forced a re-chalking of the giant,[80] with 17 tonnes of new chalk being poured in and tamped down by hand.

[81] In 2006, the National Trust carried out the first wildlife survey of the Cerne Abbas Giant, identifying wild flowers including the green-winged orchid, clustered bellflower and autumn gentian, which are uncommon in England.

[82] In 1921 Walter Long of Gillingham, Dorset, objected to the giant's nudity and conducted a campaign to either convert it to a simple nude, or to cover its supposed obscenity with a leaf.

[39] Egyptologist and archaeology pioneer Sir Flinders Petrie[84] surveyed the giant, probably during the First World War, and published his results in a Royal Anthropological Institute paper in 1926.

Samples from inside the deepest layers of the monument yielded a date range for construction of 700–1100 CE – early medieval late Anglo-Saxon period.

[101] In August 2002, the BLAC advertising agency, on behalf of the Family Planning Association, rolled a large latex sheet down the Giant's phallus to promote condom use.

[115][116][117] In 1980, Devon artist Kenneth Evans-Loud planned to produce a companion 70-metre (230 ft) female figure on the opposite hill, featuring Marilyn Monroe in her iconic pose from the film The Seven Year Itch where her dress is blown by a subway grating.

[123] In 2003, pranksters created their own 23-metre (75 ft) version of the Giant on a hill in English Bicknor, Gloucestershire, but "wearing wellies, an ear of corn hanging from its mouth and a tankard of ale in its hand".

[124] In 2005, the makers of Lynx deodorant created a 9.3 square metres (100.1 sq ft) advert on a field near Gatwick, featuring a copy of the Giant wearing underpants, frolicking with two scantily clad women.

[125] In 2006, artist Peter John Hardwick produced a painting "The Two Dancers with the Cerne Abbas Giant, with Apologies to Picasso" which is on display at Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

[129] The giant's image has been reproduced on various souvenirs and local food produce labels, including for a range of beers made by the Cerne Abbas Brewery.