A cross dyke or cross-dyke (also referred to as a cross-ridge dyke, covered way, linear ditch, linear earthwork or spur dyke) is a linear earthwork believed to be a prehistoric land boundary that usually measures between in length. A typical cross dyke consists of one or more ditches running in parallel with one or more raised banks.

Univallate A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

cross dykes typically have a flat-bottomed ditch while the ditches of multivallate cross dykes possess a V-shaped cross-section. A defining characteristic of a cross dyke is that it cuts across the width of an upland ridge or the neck of an upland spur.English Heritage 1990a. Cross dykes generally occur at altitudes over

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

.English Heritage 1990c.

Function

Cross dykes were built over the course of approximately one thousand years from the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1500–1000 BC) onwards. Interpretations of the reason for their construction vary and include their use as defensive earthworks, cattle droveways, trackways, territorial limits and internal boundaries; current theories favour the latter two uses. In southern England and southern Scotland, cross dykes are often found in association with

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

s. Cross dykes were control barriers that appear to have been a common response to upland conditions across Britain given similar social conditions. In Scotland the dykes do not appear to have served as territorial boundaries as was the case in Wessex. In some cases, cross dykes block the ridgeline approaches to prehistoric settlements such as hill forts. Since such dykes would not have stopped livestock from looping around them on the steeper slopes, such dykes seem designed to block human passage.English Heritage May 2011, p. 5. Archaeologist Andrew Fleming has suggested that the cross dykes of Yorkshire may have been

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

(c. 800 BC – AD 100) monuments designed to deter cattle raids.

Distribution

About 90 examples of cross dykes have been recorded in England,English Heritage 1990d. although many more may have been lost to ploughing, or have been wrongly classified as "short linear earthworks".English Heritage 1990f. Cross dykes are widely distributed across northern and western England. There are three main concentrations of the features, in

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

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

, and an area spanning the Cotswolds and

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

.English Heritage 1990g. Cross dykes are a relatively frequent feature on the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...

, where they frequently cut right across the chalk ridge. In southeastern Scotland, cross dykes are an additional defensive feature associated with

hill forts A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Rom ...

in the

Cheviot Hills The Cheviot Hills (), or sometimes The Cheviots, are a range of uplands straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. The English section is within the Northumberland National Park. The range includes T ...

. Cross dykes are also found in Wales.Ritchie and Ritchie 1991, pp. 94–95. Because of the comparatively few surviving examples and their importance as indicators of territorial boundaries and land use during the Bronze Age, well preserved examples of the type are judged to be of national importance.

Physical characteristics

Section through cross dyke, Chanctonbury Ring

When built, univallate cross dykes would have consisted of a bare stone bank topped with a palisade, sometimes accompanied by a ditch. Archaeological investigations have revealed that the banks were constructed with rubble; some of them were then faced with stonework. Some of the banks may have been topped by hedges. Univallate cross dykes would not have provided a great obstacle to passage; multivallate cross dykes would have been more formidable to cross.English Heritage 1990e. Cross dykes would have been larger when they were first built; in areas subject to cultivation the banks have eroded down to fill the ditches, in may cases leaving just a shallow linear depression in the ground. At

East Toft East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from ...

in North Yorkshire, of the dyke's length has completely vanished due to ploughing. Cross dykes situated on moorland often remain as notable earthworks, for example at Danby Rigg, also in North Yorkshire. The Scottish cross dykes in the Cheviot Hills generally consist of a single ditch with a bank on one or both sides. In the bivallate examples, one bank is usually higher than the other. At Woden Law, five cross dykes were built across the ridge linking the hill fort with the main ridgeline of the Cheviots. Roman engineers later ran the course of

Dere Street Dere Street or Deere Street is a modern designation of a Roman road which ran north from Eboracum (York), crossing the Stanegate at Corbridge (Hadrian's Wall was crossed at the Portgate, just to the north) and continuing beyond into what is n ...

across the same neck of land.

Date

On the

of southern England most cross dykes are thought to date to the late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

(c. 1000 – 700 BC) or early Iron Age (c. 700 – 400 BC) but an excavated cross dyke at

Chanctonbury Ring Chanctonbury Ring is a prehistoric hill fort atop Chanctonbury Hill on the South Downs, on the border of the civil parishes of Washington and Wiston in the English county of West Sussex. A ridgeway, now part of the South Downs Way, runs along ...

in West Sussex has been proven to be of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

date (AD 43 – 410). This is the only known cross dyke with such a late date. Cross dykes have tended to be dated by their association with other monuments nearby, such as

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The be ...

s and Iron Age field systems, although such dating is not secure. Some cross dykes may have continued in use into the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

(AD 410 – 1485), with a few possibly being built at this late date. Some cross dykes additionally have functioned as boundaries right through to modern times, and they sometimes exhibit a close relationship with parish boundaries.English Heritage 1990b. At the Devil's Dyke in Sussex, an Iron Age hill fort adopted an earlier cross dyke as a portion of its rampart and completely encloses a second cross dyke. Excavations of several cross dykes north of

Bokerley Dyke Bokerley Dyke (or Bokerley Ditch) is a linear earthwork long in Hampshire, between Woodyates and Martin. It is a Scheduled Monument. It is also spelt Bokerly Dyke. Bokerley Dyke was excavated by Augustus Pitt Rivers between 1888 and 1891 and by ...

in Dorset have revealed that the dykes date to the Late Iron Age; the excavator interpreted them as settlement boundaries. Artefacts recovered from cross dyke excavations are fairly limited, usually being limited to a few ceramic fragments, animal bones and stone tools. The construction of the banks has preserved the ancient land surface, which is considered an important resource for investigation by archaeologists. In southern Wales, a series of cross dykes controlling the ridgelines around the

Rhondda Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coal mining, coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fa ...

Valley have been dated to the 8th–9th centuries AD, in the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

.Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust.

Notes

References

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