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<< Feature Articles >> The Enigmatic Cursus

Submitted by Thorgrim on Saturday, 23 April 2005  Page Views: 13660

Neolithic and Bronze AgeType: Cursus

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Dorset Cursus
Dorset Cursus submitted by JimChampion : April 2005. Panorama of the course of the Dorset Cursus on Bottlebush Down. In the foreground, and on the horizon to the left, are remains of the SE cursus bank: the intervening section has been ploughed down. The course of the NW bank and ditch is only visible as a soil mark stretching across the field (indicated by the arrow). (Vote or comment on this photo)
Cursus monuments date from about 3800 BC and are among the earliest earthworks in the Neolithic landscape and perhaps the most mysterious. The term “cursus” was chosen by the old time antiquarians because they thought that they were ancient racecourses - presumably for Celtic chariot races! That idea has been discounted, but we still don’t know why they were constructed. What are they? The simple answer is that they consist of two parallel ditches with internal banks running for varying distances over the land. High banks seem to be the significant feature with the ditches being dug to obtain the earth or chalk. They are long and narrow and the length can vary from 100 yards to more than the six miles of the Dorset cursus which is actually two cursus laid end to end (cursus is the plural as well as the singular). Near Stonehenge, the cursus is 1.7 miles long, but only 140 yards wide. Some terminate in a rounded or square cut ditch while others are open ended – the Stonehenge cursus terminates in a false long barrow at its eastern end! Yes – but what are they?

Ritual
Before we can try to understand what they are, it may be useful to determine what they are not. Clearly they are not defensive – there is nothing warlike about the shallow ditches and banks and no sign of timber palisades. They are not defensive dykes as they are not high enough and do not protect boundaries such as the much later Saxon dykes of East Anglia and Wessex. There does not appear to be any convincing indication of astronomical alignments or orientation towards solstice sunrise or setting. They do not appear to be cattle pounds or domestic enclosures and so we are left with the old chestnut – ritual. They are associated with long barrows and with no fewer than six at the Dorset cursus. There is a cluster of round barrows at the southern end of the Rudston cursus in Yorkshire and at Dorchester-on-Thames there are three mortuary enclosures. In Chelmsford (Essex), the Springfield cursus had a timber circle at the eastern end and traces of fire with pits of burnt animal bones and pebbles have been found. Some cursus were constructed over chalk and we must visualise two shining white ditches striding over the countryside, but others are on gravel and seem to point towards or terminate at wet sites – either bogs or open water.

Ancestors
Until aerial photography was more common, cursus were difficult to see and it was thought that they were limited to England. The Penguin Archaeology Guide (2001) still states that cursus are Neolithic ritual monuments restricted to southern and eastern England. This is no longer true as they are found in Ireland too and during the 1980s they were discovered in Scotland with a current Scottish total of 43. They do seem to be restricted to Britain and Ireland and English Heritage gives the current number for England as 101. Some idea of chronological perspective and changing values can be gained when it is realised that the central henge at Thornborough was not built until the cursus ditches there had silted up! Frances Pryor excavated the Maxey cursus near Peterborough and found that it cut a diagonal swathe across a low gravel island in the flood plain of the river Welland. It begins at the Etton causewayed enclosure and ends at the Great Henge of Maxey. Does this give us an insight into its purpose? Pryor suggests that the cursus was a transitional route taking the ceremonial activities of Etton to a replacement site at the Great Henge. Elsewhere, he explores his recurring theme of a ritual landscape, liminal space and the progression from life to death. He suggests that the Amesbury cursus near Stonehenge was a processional route for Ancestral Initiates moving from the Domain of the Living towards the Domain of the Ancestors. (Britain BC).

Tree Throws
Other notions include the idea of a symbolic river and if we discount the view that cursus were constructed as runways for flying saucers, should we also dismiss the suggestion that they were astronomical observatories? This concept puts forward the idea that a long, narrow cursus was built as an artificial horizon in flat country. Viewed from a fixed point some distance to one side, timber stakes could be used to mark the limits of moon rise and setting throughout the long cycle. Similarly, the rise and setting of the sun and significant stars could be marked. This theory has some credibility when we consider the shorter cursus of 100 yards or so – but over the six miles of the Dorset cursus? Then there is the matter of associated tree throws. When a large tree is blown down in a storm, the roots are uplifted with a plug of soil leaving a great hole. This is quite common, particularly on shallow soils such as chalk and gravel. Evidence of tree throw holes has been found at some cursus and at Springfield (Chelmsford) the south ditch deviates from a straight line and aligns with a pit that is very possibly a tree throw. Another similar pit is enclosed in the eastern terminal and the same sort of thing seems to be going on at other cursus such as those at Ashton-on-Trent, Drayton in Oxfordshire and Barford in Warwickshire. Terence Meaden has suggested that these fallen and uprooted trees might actually be the reason why cursus were constructed. He considers the possibility that the cursus actually marked the path of Neolithic tornadoes! However, we must also consider the possibility that certain trees may have been uprooted by man. The inverted tree at the later Seahenge springs to mind with the associated idea of it being planted upside down so that its branches could grow into the underworld. In either case, perhaps the hole torn in the earth was seen as a portal to a spirit realm.

What do you think?
Traces of these very early and massive Neolithic constructions are not easy to photograph. In addition to Jim’s super coverage of the Dorset cursus, we have photos of the one at Stonehenge and the re-construction at Heathrow. So the challenge is to get out there, find and photograph some of the others (see Pastscape for locations) and above all – consider what on earth they really are!

Further reading:

Jim Champion’s brilliant photo essay for the Portal on the Dorset Cursus

Frances Pryor - Britain BC, HarperCollins 2003

Michael Haigh in Northern Earth discusses tree throws.

Excavations at a Neolithic Cursus, Springfield, Essex, 1979-85'. D G Buckley, J D Hedges & N Brown. Prehistoric Society


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"The Enigmatic Cursus" | Login/Create an Account | 7 News and Comments
  
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Re: The Enigmatic Cursus by Anonymous on Saturday, 30 April 2016
I'm a little late (11 years) in responding to this splendidly detailed posting, which I found by googling (cursus chalk), checking out a hunch that cursus (plural) might be restricted to chalk - which I've now learned is not the case.

Never mind. That doesn't necessarily put paid to the hunch I've advanced on my latest sciencebuzz posting. I believe that the cursus, or at any rate the more compact ones, were excarnation sites (defleshing of the dead, "sky burial"). The purpose of the exposed chalk was to recreate the kind of seascape look to inland sites, attracting in the right kind of scavenger bird with a voracious appetite, specifically, probably, the seagull.

I've used Google Earth and white marker pen in MS Paint to show how the Stonehenge Cursus might look to a seagull on the wing that is exploring inland from the Solent and Southhampton Water, some 30 miles to the south, or Avebury Stone Circle some 25 miles further north from Stonehenge. Yes, I consider the bank/ditch or ditch/bank configuration of the henge or cursus to have served the same role, creating a "white cliff" in miniature, the top of which was initially where the birds could perch between beak-fulls. Then someone had the idea of installing timber posts, then standing stones, with or without lintels, as superior bird perches. Hey presto, one has an explanation for otherwise 'enigmatic' Neolithic outdoor landscaping and garden furniture. Whether it's true or not is a totally different matter, but one has to start with a hypothesis, does one not, when answers are not self-evident?

Colin Berry

Might Stonehenge have been designed as an easily-spottable feeding station for high-flying seagulls – as perhaps was the nearby “Cursus”?

(googleable)
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Re: The Enigmatic Cursus by Anonymous on Monday, 25 April 2005
Essential reading on cursus monuments:

A barclay and J Harding (eds) 1999. Pathways and Ceremonies. The Cursus Monuments of Britain and Ireland (Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers 4). Oxbow Books, Oxford.

and

A Barclay, G Lambrick et al. 2003. Lines in the Landscape. Cursus monuments in the Upper Thames Valley: excavations at the Drayton and Lechlade Cursuses. Oxford Archaeology: Thames Valley Landscapes Monograph No. 15.

and one for the Scots:

GJ Barclay and GS Maxwell. 1998. The Cleaven Dyke and Littleour. Monuments of the Neolithic of Tayside. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series no. 13.
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Re: The Enigmatic Cursus by sem on Sunday, 24 April 2005
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Jim you've just made my day. There are two parallel lines running NEE up Foel Darw (to the West of Nant Tarw circlles), and they fit the description of cursus. I thought they belonged to Medeival farm system there. There is nothing on my print out from RCAHM about them.
Yet more mysteries to explore.
Thank you.
SEM
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Re: The Enigmatic Cursus by MickM on Saturday, 23 April 2005
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Great article Peter! Just one little quibble though. You don't seem to have mentioned the other type of cursus, the predominant form in Scotland, where over half the 46 known cursus monuments are pit defined, rather than bank & ditch. The evidence from the Dunragit excavations would suggest that these pits contained massive posts which were burnt in situ. I'll post a couple of photos from the excavations shortly.
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    Re: The Enigmatic Cursus by Thorgrim on Saturday, 23 April 2005
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    I'll leave you to take up the Scottish cursus in a follow up article - I know nothing about them so will look forward to learning something from you. Cheers!
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Re: The Enigmatic Cursus by JimChampion on Saturday, 23 April 2005
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The Dorset Cursus would have been less of a precessional way and more of an endurance course, if it was used in that fashion. Along its length there are many hills and valleys, sharp drops and wet/boggy land. A rich area for speculation about "purpose" given the absence of evidence.

Good feature article too.
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Re: The Enigmatic Cursus by AngieLake on Saturday, 23 April 2005
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You could hardly call the shorter 'Banqueting Hall' at the Hill of Tara a cursus, but it is constructed in a similar fashion.
When I dowsed there in 2001 I found a ritual movement leading from the lowest part of its sloping 'passage' straight up the middle of it, but exiting through a space to my left in its eastern bank just before reaching the highest end/exit.
(That movement went into a swirl just outside the eastern bank before continuing south - on the level 'summit' ground where all the other features of the site are visible - to the 'Rath of the Synods' near the church wall. Above the wall were many old trees from which all the resident rooks suddenly took off as I started dowsing the movement on the 'Rath'!)

During the walk up through the 'Banqueting Hall', nothing was visible above the end of the cursus, nor at either side, thus isolating me from my environment and forcing me to focus on what was ahead. I felt that this would cause the anticipation of any people in that procession to be strongly whetted for what they were about to see in the 'sacred'/ ceremonial area on the higher ground above them. I seem to remember being just to the left of centre during this walk, which was directed by the movements of my L-shaped copper dowsing rods.

Thanks for your interesting article Thorgrim.
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