If Bryn Walters is such an archaeologist, why is the Swindon Advertiser piece full of such utterly speculative stuff as "And today it can be revealed that for the best part of 3,000 years a hillside near Swindon was the site of an epic chalk carving of a giant spearman." - Even if a figure was ever there, what proper archaeologist would encourage them to print that it's 3000 years old?
"For many years – possibly several centuries – it was located alongside an equally impressive chalk figure thought to depict the Saxon god Woden." - what's this all about then, one figure not enough? OH I SEE you can't have Woden in a neolithic carving can you, he's not been invented yet because he's Saxon apparently? So that bit was later, ok?
If this isn't all utter bilge I will eat my copy of the Owl Service. Please don't drag medieval Welsh stories into it. It's got nothing to do with the Mabinogion, that is Welsh - the names are all Welsh, the places are specifically mentioned eg Dyfed, Ardudwy, Dinas Dinlle, Caer Arionrhod, the river Cynvael, and lots of the action goes on near the sea. Not Swindon. Which is not named at all and is a very long way from the sea.
I wouldn't mind, but all this does nothing for the public profile of actual prehistory, it just makes anyone interested in it look like a fruitcake in association. In the 1970s it wouldn't have been a 'man with a spear' it would have been an astronaut you know. He looks like an astronaut to me, with his space helmet. I think the site was like the Nazca lines, it was a message to the space aliens to land near Swindon.
