One of the principal ideas concerning the age of the giant and who he could represent, is that he is from the time of the Roman occupation of Britain, because he looks like the Roman god Hercules.
A 1996 study discovered that originally the figure had a cloak or cape in his left arm, which was corroborated in 2008.
The cloak or robe could be an animal skin, giving credibility to the theory that he was hunter, or alternatively Hercules with the skin of the Nemean lion over his arm.