250px, Stonehenge Cursus, Wiltshire 250px, Dorset Cursus terminal on Thickthorn Down, Dorset Cursuses are

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

structures resembling

ditch A ditch is a small to moderate divot created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ar ...

es or trenches in the islands of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Relics found within them indicate that they were built between 3400 and 3000 BC, making them among the oldest monumental structures on the islands. The name 'cursus' was suggested in 1723 by William Stukeley, the antiquarian, who compared the Stonehenge cursus to a Roman chariot-racing track, or circus. Cursuses range in length from to almost . The distance between the parallel earthworks can be up to . Banks at the terminal ends enclose the cursus. Over fifty have been identified via

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing airc ...

while many others have doubtless been obliterated by farming and other activities. The Stonehenge Cursus is a notable example within sight of the more famous Stonehenge stone circle. Other examples are the four cursuses at Rudston in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

, that at Fornham All Saints in Suffolk, the Cleaven Dyke in Perthshire and the Dorset cursus. The Bures cursus and the Metlands cursus are in Bures St Mary, Suffolk, and were detected from cropmarks. They are situated just above the floodplain of the north bank of the River Stour, Suffolk. On December 21 each year the sun rises over Lodge Hills, Wormingford, and shines down the length of the Metlands cursus.

Function

It has been conjectured that they were used in

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...

s connected with ancestor veneration, that they follow astronomical alignments or that they served as buffer zones between ceremonial and occupation landscapes. More recent studies have reassessed the original interpretation and argued that they were used for ceremonial competitions. Finds of arrowheads at the terminal ends suggest archery and hunting were important to the builders and that the length of the cursus may have reflected its use as a proving ground for young men involving a journey to adulthood.

Anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

parallels exist for this interpretation. Contemporary internal features are rare and it has been traditionally thought that the cursūs were used as processional routes. They are often aligned on and respect the position of pre-existing

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repre ...

s and

bank barrow A bank barrow, sometimes referred to as a barrow-bank, ridge barrow, or ridge mound, is a type of tumulus first identified by O.G.S. Crawford in 1938. In the United Kingdom, they take the form of a long, sinuous, parallel-sided mound, approximat ...

s and appear to ignore difficulties in terrain. The Dorset Cursus, the longest known example, crosses a river and three valleys along its course across Cranborne Chase and is close to the henge monuments at Knowlton. The present-day Tynwald day ceremony on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

involves the procession of parliament along a cursus-like structure, which is sometimes suggested as a related or continual folk tradition with the neolithic cursus. Larger scale modern ceremonial analogs might include the National Mall in Washington, and

The Mall, London The Mall () is a road in the City of Westminster, central London, between Buckingham Palace at its western end and Trafalgar Square via Admiralty Arch to the east. Near the east end at Trafalgar Square and Whitehall it is met by Horse Guards ...

Identification by aerial photography

Numerous examples of cursus are known and the discipline of

aerial archaeology Aerial archaeology is the study of archaeological remains by examining them from a higher altitude. In present day, this is usually achieved by satellite images or through the use of drones. Details Aerial Archaeology involves interpretation an ...

is the most effective method of identifying such large features following thousands of years of weathering and plough damage. Some cursus have only been identified through a first sighting of cropmarks visible from aerial reconnaissance; for example, the cropmarks at Fetteresso were the first indication of a cursus at that location in Aberdeenshire,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

.Hogan, 2008

Etymology

'Cursus' (plural 'cursūs' or 'cursuses') was a name given by early British archaeologists such as William Stukeley to the large parallel lengths of banks with external ditches which they thought were early Roman athletic courses, after the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word '' cursus'', meaning "course".

Line notes

References

*Jim Champion
"The Enigmatic Cursus"
''Megalithic Portal'', 23 April 2005, ed. A. Burnham *C. Michael Hogan (2008

''The Modern Antiquarian'' *David McOmish
"Cursus: solving a 6,000-year-old puzzle"
''British Archaeology'', Issue no 69, March 2003, editor Simon Denison ISSN 1357-4442 *Don Lipman, "Snow fences: do they still serve a purpose?", The Washington Post, 10 January 2013
English Heritage: Cursus
*Gerald S. Hawkins (with John B. White), ''Stonehenge Decoded'' Doubleday & Co Inc, Garden City, New York (1965) {{Prehistoric technology Stone Age Britain Types of monuments and memorials

Function

Identification by aerial photography

Etymology

See also

Line notes

References