The Uffington White Horse is designed on an escarpment of the Berkshire Downs. It is cut on a shallow slope near the top, and can be viewed well only from above. The lines of the horse are made up of trenches dug and filled with chalk. OSL (Optically Stimulated Luminescence) testing of soil beneath the chalk layer shows that it has been buried probably between 1200 BC and 800 BC, and thus the horse is of Bronze Age origin. The original purpose of this horse is unknown; it may be an emblem or a totem. The Uffington White Horse may have been cut by the adherents of a horse-goddess cult.
The Uffington White Horse
