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A New Dimension to Ancient Measures - from many years of research and fieldwork

A New Dimension to Ancient Measures - from many years of research and fieldwork

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<< Our Photo Pages >> Great Cursus, Stonehenge - Cursus in England in Wiltshire

Submitted by vicky on Friday, 10 June 2011  Page Views: 31855

StonehengeSite Name: Great Cursus, Stonehenge Alternative Name: The Stonehenge Cursus, The Cursus, Greater Stonehenge Cursus, Greater Cursus
Country: England County: Wiltshire Type: Cursus
Nearest Town: Salisbury  Nearest Village: Amesbury
Map Ref: SU12064296  Landranger Map Number: 184
Latitude: 51.185743N  Longitude: 1.828827W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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I have visited· I would like to visit

Bladup whese001 would like to visit

markj99 visited on 4th Jun 2023 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 3 The Great Cursus is a polar opposite of its more famous neighbour, Stonehenge Stone Circle. The Great Cursus blends into the landscape whereas Stonehenge Stone Circle stands out on the plain. If you take the path to the circle from the visitor centre the Great Cursus is visited on the way. The west end of the cursus has an information board in a clearing of the Fargo Plantation.

Chrus visited on 29th Mar 2019 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 3

Jansold visited on 24th May 2016 - their rating: Cond: 1 Amb: 3 Access: 4

Richard13 visited on 1st Jan 2014 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 5 Access: 3

SolarMegalith visited on 25th Nov 2011 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4

coldrum visited - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 3

Andy B: would like to visit We have a huge database of cursuses on the Megalithic Portal

DrewParsons AngieLake h_fenton TimPrevett FrothNinja mdensham have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2.17 Ambience: 4.17 Access: 3.33

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by TimPrevett : See the first comment on the Great Cursus page HERE for June 10th 2011 for more information. Image copyright Mark Anstee - also much more on his website HERE (Vote or comment on this photo)
Cursus in Wiltshire. This huge earthwork, 2.8km long and 90m wide, lies approximately 800m to the north of Stonehenge and consists of a small bank and external ditch.

Now much reduced by ploughing, the Cursus can be visited by following the signs from the Stonehenge car park.

Also see our site pages for Great Cursus W Barrow and Great Cursus Barrows, Stonehenge.

Note: Details of Mark Anstee's Great Cursus work in the comments (June 10th 2011) and some photographs to document the ongoing project
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Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by Bladup : The wide shallow ditch of the Great Cursus looking East (Vote or comment on this photo)

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by Bladup : The clear to see Cursus ditch looking at the Western side of the Great Cursus (Vote or comment on this photo)

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by Bladup : The Eastern side of the Great Cursus (Vote or comment on this photo)

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by Bladup : The shallow ditch of the Great Cursus looking East (Vote or comment on this photo)

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by coin : Tump at western end of cursus. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by DrewParsons : The edge of the Cursus immediately north of the Cursus Barrow Cemetery. April 2015

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by DrewParsons

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by DrewParsons

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by DrewParsons

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by Bladup : The slight green bank on the left is the Eastern end of the cursus, It was once thought to be the remains of a longbarrow, The area has now been cleared.

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by Bladup : The cleared Eastern end of the cursus looking over it's whole length to the Western end.

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by Bladup : The cleared Eastern end of the cursus.

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by Bladup : The Eastern end of the Great Cursus and the midwinter sun.

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by SolarMegalith : Ditch of the Great Cursus just after dusk (photo taken on November 2011).

Alex Down (Neolith) Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Alex Down (Neolith) Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by AngieLake : My late friend Alex Down walks east along the bank of the Great Cursus in May 2010. It's nearly a year now since he passed away (on 14th), and good to remember him and his infectious enthusiasm for all things 'Stonehenge' [and Avebury]. He posted on Meg P briefly under the title 'Neolith'. He also worked on the Bluestonehenge dig with MPP, and posted countless fascinating comments on Eternal Id...

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by TimPrevett : See the first comment on the Great Cursus page HERE for June 10th 2011 for more information. Image copyright Mark Anstee - also much more on his website HERE (2 comments)

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by TimPrevett

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by TimPrevett

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by TimPrevett

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by TimPrevett

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by TimPrevett : At the east end of the Cursus, this fella crossed our path... Winter Solstice 2010 (2 comments)

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by TimPrevett : Winter Solstice 2010 - The camber of the cursus can be made out well here, north side.

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by TimPrevett : Winter Solstice 2010 - West terminus of the Great Cursus looking SE, with a barrow (L) in the centre of the cursus, and another huge barrow off to its south.

Great Cursus, Stonehenge
Great Cursus, Stonehenge submitted by TimPrevett : Winter Solstice 2010 - This line is the ridge denoting the west terminus of the cursus - much more visible than the east end. A ditch survives here too.

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 247m SW 223° Great Cursus Barrows, Stonehenge* Round Barrow(s) (SU11894278)
 563m S 186° Stonehenge Car Park Postholes* Timber Circle (SU120424)
 714m ESE 119° The Avenue* Ancient Trackway (SU12694262)
 752m SSE 162° Heel Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (SU1229142244)
 788m SSE 166° Stonehenge.* Stone Circle (SU1224742194)
 868m SSE 156° Stonehenge Bowl Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU12424217)
 931m WSW 257° Fargo Disk Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU11154275)
 999m W 267° Great Cursus W Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU11064291)
 1.2km W 267° Amesbury Cursus (W)* Cursus (SU109429)
 1.3km SSW 203° North of Normanton Gorse Barrows* Barrow Cemetery (SU1154441754)
 1.4km SE 130° Amesbury 39 Bowl Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU13154204)
 1.5km NNE 16° Long Barrow alongside The Packway, Larkhill* Long Barrow (SU12474438)
 1.5km WNW 295° Winterbourne Stoke Cursus (E) Cursus (SU107436)
 1.5km E 96° Old King Barrows* Barrow Cemetery (SU13604280)
 1.6km ESE 118° New King Barrows* Barrow Cemetery (SU13454222)
 1.7km E 82° Amesbury Cursus (E)* Cursus (SU137432)
 1.8km SSW 194° Bush Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (SU11644126)
 1.8km ESE 112° The King Barrows Ridge* Barrow Cemetery (SU137423)
 1.8km WNW 286° The Lesser Cursus* Cursus (SU10354343)
 1.8km S 189° Normanton Down* Barrow Cemetery (SU118412)
 1.8km WNW 284° Winterbourne Stoke Cursus (W) Cursus (SU103434)
 1.9km SW 219° Pond Barrow and Wilsford Shaft Round Barrow(s) (SU1086441475)
 1.9km SE 136° Coneybury Henge* Henge (SU134416)
 2.0km W 265° Stonehenge Visitor Centre* Museum (SU101428)
 2.0km SSW 199° Normanton Down Long Barrow* Long Barrow (SU1141341071)
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"Great Cursus, Stonehenge" | Login/Create an Account | 16 News and Comments
  
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Re: Great Cursus, Stonehenge by Anne T on Tuesday, 09 January 2018
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The Northern Antiquarian (TNA) also features a page on this cursus - see their entry for Stonehenge Cursus, Wiltshire which gives an archaeology & history from 20th century reference material, together with plans showing its alignment to Beacon Hill and an image of Stukeley's drawing of the cursus. TNA gives the grid references for this cursus as running from SU 1094 4292 to SU 1370 4319.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Great Cursus, Stonehenge by Anonymous on Monday, 30 October 2017
Back in 1992 I walked up to one of the barrows near the cursus and saw a strange shape like a matchstick man appear over the top of the barrow moving about in a glowing energy. I was mesmerised by it until it disappeared eventually. Strange forces abound in ancient sites.
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The Date of the Greater Stonehenge Cursus by Andy B on Thursday, 30 July 2015
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The Date of the Greater Stonehenge Cursus, Julian Thomas, Mike Parker Pearson, Joshua Pollard, Colin Richards, Chris Tilley and Kate Welham

Excavations conducted as part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project during the summer of 2007 succeeded in dating the Greater Stonehenge Cursus for the first time, to the thirty- thirty-centur BC. At the same time, important new evidence relating to the structural sequence of the monument was acquired, which clarifies its place in the overall development of the Stonehenge landscape

The Greater Cursus – 3km long and just north of Stonehenge – had been dated by a red deer antler found in its ditch in the 1940s to 2890-2460 BC. New excavations by the authors found another antler in a much tighter context, and dating a millennium earlier. It appears that the colossal cursus had already marked out the landscape before Stonehenge was erected. At that time or soon after, its lines were re-emphasised, perhaps with a row of posts in pits. So grows the subtlety of the discourse of monuments in this world heritage site.

https://www.academia.edu/216222/The_date_of_the_Greater_Stonehenge_Cursus
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Re: A short note on Ritual aspect of Cursus monuments by angieweekender on Monday, 01 August 2011
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and here is some really up to date research on Causewayed Enclosures-wow!http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/interviews/interview/1764/
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Re: A short note on Ritual aspect of Cursus monuments by angieweekender on Monday, 01 August 2011
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I would say causewayed enclosures, as they are early neolithic monuments, went out of use or had a change of use, as at Windmill Hill, when mortuary practice changed, and barrows were built all over the summit in the late neo/early Bronze Age.One of the current interpretations of Causewayed Enclosures, after Roger Mercer's excavations at Hambledon Hill is that they were excarnation enclosures. There is alot of hard evidence for these practices. So the date 500BC probably means continuity of use into the Iron age as at Hambledon Hill, where part of the hill top was converted to first a Bronze Age univallate hillfort and then a Iron Age bivallate hillfort.

Cursus Monuments
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba69/feat1.shtml
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba44/ba44feat.html
http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/monument.htm
Current thinking is that they were ritual monuments but ritual was likely to have been embedded in everyday life not just on Sundays and 'holy days'.
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Re: A short note on Ritual aspect of Cursus monuments by AngieLake on Monday, 01 August 2011
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While browsing through Archaeology magazine for July/August 2011 (edition no.119), at the library recently, I made a note for myself regarding one writer's theories:
[Quoting personal notes only]

"Causewayed Encs. 3700 - 500 BC.
"Cursus 3500 - 3250 BC.
"A new very different kind of large-scale earthwork.
"S. Britain. Sometimes vast, but straight rather than round, and consistently clean rather than rich in the debris of the living.
"Some built directly on top of causewayed enclosures.
"One possibility is that ritual organisers now prefer to control things by deliberately more arcane and mysterious practices, in strong contrast to what may have been the public mayhem of gatherings at enclosures.

[End of notes.]

If this has whetted anyone's interest for more, check out the current magazine. I didn't make a note of the author unfortunately.
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Mark Anstee's Great Cursus project by TimPrevett on Friday, 10 June 2011
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Mark Anstee writes:

“I first encountered the Great Cursus Monument in 2007, when Artist in Residence on the Stonehenge Riverside Project.

Spared from the intense limelight and cultural baggage of its visually more arresting Stonehenge neighbour, and sharing its long borders with the disparate factional interests of military, tourism, farming and Archaeology, the Cursus seemed a perfect site to explore ideas of territory, possession and identity.

Whilst onsite, I fell into dialogue with Prof Julian Thomas (a highly respected Neolithic and Cursus archaeologist) about the nature and function of the Cursus and how this monument with no clear visual identity might be represented.

The act of Digging by archaeologists can be seen as an aggressive agitation of territory, and this I took as provocation to begin the subversive counter-activity of ‘tagging’, i.e. marking territory with an identifying Cursus symbol.

By taking on the role of primitive outsider, I set about trying to create a drawn motif that would stand-in for the Cursus, based only upon my experience of being on it and walking its borders.

The drawing evolved into a distilled symbol, which was also a primitive map of the monument itself. This I tagged insistently onto border-features and objects in the landscape, around and along the full length of the Cursus. Posts, stones, Military signs and gates became the focus of increased tagging activity during the excavations in the summer of 2007, but particular significance was given to the dozen or so cattle-troughs that flank the 3.5 km of the Cursus borders. Surrounded by cows acting as ‘keepers of the dead,’ I started to think of the troughs as special containers or Sarcophagus for the symbolic transportation of the dead, supporting the theory that the Cursus could have been a site of excarnation.

The Cursus symbol, the animals on it, its flanking archaeological features, images of the ever present military helicopters and tanks, became part of the overall narrative iconography: conflating past & present forms in one unifying visual language, culminating in the elaborate decoration of one particular trough. This empty trough stood alone, between the Cursus ditch and the nearby Cursus Barrows and as it fitted my body perfectly, seemed a suitable carriage for transportation to the afterlife.

The whole process led me to think about the notion of suggestibility when looking for evidence of past cultures and, as a final act of marking territory and planting material evidence, I made a 10m pigment drawing of the Cursus, in the base of the Western-most trench, before backfilling.

In 2008 I returned to the Stonehenge Cursus, no longer an innocent or outsider but a participant. Having previously established a visual culture, a history and a sense of tribal identity, my role would now be to consolidate my territory, acting as guardian, sentry and ‘bounds-beater’ for the archaeologists that were digging there.

On revisiting the sites of the previous years’ tagging activity, I found traces of drawings and evidence of the Cursus culture.

Instead of merely repeating the process of tagging, I began to make a series of primitive flags using extant Cursus symbols, but also introduced new elements that seemed to have some symbolic significance. So the crow, the bulls-head and flint arrowhead became additions to the iconography.

Compelled by a sense of paranoia, I confined myself to strategic positions around the Cursus borders, looking-out for potential attackers from the surrounding landscape and recorded these danger zones in pen & wash studies. Then as a ritual act of protection and a mark of tribal presence, I staked flags around each Archaeological trench and paraded the Standard flag around the Cursus borders, photographing this act as evidence and memorial of ‘territory possessed’.

On my leaving the Cursus, the flags

Read the rest of this post...
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Cursus Terminus & Long Barrows by TimPrevett on Wednesday, 09 February 2011
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Interesting point from Prof Julian Thomas this afternoon that the terminus of the cursus are built to resemble long barrows, but not actually be one... thoughts?
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Stonehenge Cursus at Winter Solstice - Clip on YouTube by TimPrevett on Wednesday, 02 February 2011
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Clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn9U1w4Dj5Q Embedding seems disabled!
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    Re: Stonehenge Cursus at Winter Solstice - Clip on YouTube by Andy B on Wednesday, 09 February 2011
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    Thanks Tim, annoyingly Youtube have changed their embedding to use IFRAME tags, which are not secure. Tick the box on Youtube for 'Use old embed code', copy that (starts with OBJECT) and it will work.
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      Re: Stonehenge Cursus at Winter Solstice - Clip on YouTube by TimPrevett on Thursday, 10 February 2011
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      Andy - Is this code on general settings, or on the specific clip?
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Stonehenge Cursus Talk at Manc Uni 9th Feb by TimPrevett on Wednesday, 02 February 2011
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Wed 9 Feb: Cursus awareness: the other Stonehenge monument
Mark Anstee, Leverhulme Artist in Residence in Archaeology.
3-4pm: lecture
4-4.30pm: discussion followed by tea & coffee
Drop-in, free

http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/specialist/showcaselectures/
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    Re: Stonehenge Cursus Talk at Manc Uni 9th Feb by BERNARDQUATERMASS on Wednesday, 02 February 2011
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    I fancy going to this event............ Do you think I'll be allowed to record it?



    Tom.
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      Re: Stonehenge Cursus Talk at Manc Uni 9th Feb by TimPrevett on Wednesday, 09 February 2011
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      Bernard Quatermass, did you go? I did! If you did, I think I know who you were... LOL.
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Stonehenge and Avebury seminar at Devizes, May 2010 by Andy B on Monday, 21 June 2010
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Julian Thomas gave a wide-ranging talk on “The Stonehenge Cursus complex” which is difficult to summarize succinctly. In viewing Stonehenge and Durrington Walls as the two ends of a journey, involving the dead and the living respectively, he pointed to the frequent pairing of a long barrow with a long enclosure. The pairing is seen at the Great Cursus (Amesbury 42, the long barrow, sits at the eastern end of the Cursus), the Lesser Cursus, Normanton Down, and so on. This seems again to be a similar conjunction of the living and the dead, where the cursuses, for instance, may formalize a long-established pathway. Radiocarbon dating of antler picks discovered at the bottom of the western terminal ditch, plus other features, all suggest that the Stonehenge Cursus was first constructed around 3500 BC, forming a highly visible feature in the landscape. It then appears that, around 500 years later, there was a social change from a society that saw the dead as part of itself, to one that regarded the dead as being kept at a distance, in a separate zone.
More at
http://www.eternalidol.com/?p=7267
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Julian Thomas: Cursus Is Older Than Stonehenge by Andy B on Friday, 13 June 2008
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A team led by University of Manchester archaeologist Professor Julian Thomas has dated the Greater Stonehenge Cursus at about 3,500 years BC – 500 years older than the circle itself.

They were able to pinpoint its age after discovering an antler pick used to dig the Cursus – the most significant find since it was discovered in 1723 by antiquarian William Stukeley.

When the pick was carbon dated the results pointed to an age which was much older than previously thought – between 3600 and 3300 BC – and has caused a sensation among archeologists.

The dig took place last summer in a collaborative project run by five British universities and funded by the Arts and Histories Research Council and the National Geographic Society.

Professor Thomas said: “The Stonehenge Cursus is a 100 metre wide mile long area which runs about 500 metres north of Stonehenge.

“We don’t know what it was used for – but we do know it encloses a pathway which has been made inaccessible.

“And that suggests it was either a sanctified area or for some reason was cursed.”

Professor Thomas believes that the Cursus was part of complex of monuments, within which Stonehenge was later constructed.

Other elements include the ‘Lesser Stonehenge Cursus’ and a series of long barrows - all built within a mile of Henge.

He added: “Our colleagues led by a team from Sheffield University have also dated some of the cremated human remains from Stonehenge itself.

“That’s caused another sensational discovery and proves that burial cremation had been taking place at Stonehenge as early as 2900 BC – soon after the monument was first built.

“But what is still so intriguing about the Cursus is that it’s about 500 years older than Henge – that strongly suggests there was a link and was very possibly a precursor.

“We hope more discoveries lie in store when we work on the Eastern end of the Cursus this summer.

“It will be a big step forward in our understanding of this enigmatic monument.”

Source: University of Manchester via Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080610095001.htm
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