#The Northern Antiquarian » Feed The Northern Antiquarian » Comments Feed The Northern Antiquarian » cursuses Tag Feed The Northern Archaeology & History The site has been known about for nearly 150 years, albeit mistakenly as a series of prehistoric barrows that William Greenwell (1877) told were "near the division between the parishes of Rudstone and Burton Agnes" near the crest of the hill. He further told the place to be, "Two long mounds, almost parallel, their northern end gradually losing themselves in the surface-level, but connected together at the southern end by another long mound." South end of Cursus A (after D.P. Dymond) Early photo of Cursus A (after J.K.St Joseph) Then in 1958 when C. & E. Grantham of Driffield did the first modern excavation here across a section of the western ditch, they found that the long embankment went on much further than ever previously anticipated, for more than half-a-mile downhill in the direction of Rudston village. It wasn't a long barrow or tombs of any sort, they found! Then in 1961 when Dr. J.K. St. Joseph did aerial survey work over the area, he and his colleagues established that this monument consisted of extensive parallel ditches stretching for at least 1½ miles towards and past the eastern side of Rudston village. It's nature as a cursus monument was rediscovered after several thousand years in the wilderness... (on St. Joseph's survey, two other cursus monuments were also found in the vicinity, being Rudston Cursus B and Cursus C) Readers will hopefully forgive me for quoting at some length Mr Dymond's (1966) article on the site (with minimal editing!): "The southern end of the cursus lies in the western angle of two roads, Woldgate and Burton Agnes Balk. In plan it is square with rounded corners and consists of a bank with outer ditch. Although the bank has been ploughed for many years, it still remains substantial; it stands up to 4 feet high from the outside and 1-2 feet wide from the inside. The east and west banks decline in height northwards and are now at their greatest height where they join the southern end. The profile of each bank is smooth and rounded and merges on the outside with the broad shallow depression of the silted-up ditch. The south bank is now 170 feet long overall, and spread to a width of 60-80 feet. It stands higher at both ends than in the middle. This fact was noted by Greenwell, who also recorded that at the southwest angle "there was the appearance of a round barrow raised upon the surface of the long mound." There is no surface evidence today to suggest a secondary round barrow, and to some extent at least the greater height at the angles is probably due to the concentration of upcast inside a fairly sharp corner. "The south arm of the ditch has been largely destroyed by a chalk-pit, but the southeast turn is quite clear on air-photographs. There is no suggestion on the ground or from the air that the cursus had ever extended further to the south. "The cursus begins its descent in a due northerly direction, and loses its eastern side for approximately 600 feet under the enclosure road, Burton Agnes Balk. The ditch can be traced intermittently on the western and eastern verges. It then swings gently NNW around the head of a small slack draining northwest. Thus far the cursus is traceable on the ground. The ditches are the most consistent feature, showing as broad shallow depressions 20-40 feet wide and 70-80 yards apart, which when in fallow attract a dark coarse vegetation (particularly thistles and nettles. The banks inside the ditches are sometimes visible in relief though considerably spread. Where the banks have been almost entirely ploughed out, a chalk spread usually marks their position. "There is a suggestion on the ground that the banks and ditches may have been separated by berms, particularly on the east side near the square end. This appears to be confirmed by the silting of the ditch in the excavated section... "Proceeding further downhill in the direction of Rudston village, the cursus quite suddenly swings north-NNE, finally crosses Burton Agnes Balk, and passes to the west of Pits Plantation. On the west of the road both banks and ditches are still visible in relief, and the ditches produce a firm crop-mark. East of the road no surface traces are discernible, and only the eastern ditch shows intermittently as a crop-mark. "For ½-mile across the floor of the Great Wold Valley, there is no trace of the cursus. The area has been ploughed since medieval times, and there is in addition a considerable Romano-British settlement. It is worth noting that in this length, the cursus must have crossed the stream of the Gypsey Race, surely a fact of some importance in any discussion of the function of cursuses. "Two parallel ditches c.60 yards apart, visible on air photographs in a field immediately north of the modern Rudston-Bridlington road, seem to represent the continuation of the cursus. The ditches travel for approximately 300 yards and end at the Bridlington Gate Plantation. There are no surface traces in the field, but a depression in the plantation may represent the eastern ditch. This depression is crossed obliquely by the remains of a low bank and ditch running along the length of the plantation WSW and ENE. This latter (part) is probably part of the supposedly Iron Age entrenchment system, and has certainly been used as a road from Rudston to Bridlington, as the name of the plantation implies. "The northern end of the cursus cannot be traced. Possibilities are that the end was in the plantation and has been destroyed by the later earthwork, or that the cursus proceeded NNE for an unknown distance. If the latter hypothesis is accepted, the western ditch must be under the Argam Dykes, a double entrenchment which appears to terminate at the northern side of the plantation, and the eastern ditch is indistinguishable from ploughing lines to which it is parallel... "Cursus A has its southern end at a height of 254 feet OD, on the forward face of a long chalk ridge running WSW and ENE. From this point the course of the cursus is visible, except for that part west of Pits Plantation. The last known part in Bridlington Gate Plantation, 1½ miles off, is clearly visible. Seen against the contours of the area, the cursus has one end resting on a high ridge, crosses a broad valley, and climbs at least in part, the far side. It appears to pass approximately 300 yards east of the monolith in Rudston churchyard." Line of Rudston A The presence of this and three other cursus monuments close by (Rudston B, C and D) indicates that the region was an exceptionally important one in the cosmology of our prehistoric ancestors. Four of these giant linear cursus monuments occur in relative proximity, and there was an excess of ancient tombs and, of course, we have the largest standing stone in the British Isles stood in the middle of it all. A full multidisciplinary analysis of the antiquities in this region is long overdue. To our ancestors, the mythic terrain and emergent monuments hereby related to each other symbiotically, as both primary aspects (natural) and epiphenomena (man-made) of terra mater: a phenomenon long known to comparative religious students and anthropologists exploring the animistic natural relationship of landscape, tribal groups and monuments. One of the four (known) cursus monuments around Rudston: this one stretches between the Ordnance Survey coordinates TA 081669 near Kilham Grange on the southwestern edge of Rudston, then heads northeast towards the village itself at TA 094675. Described briefly in D.P.Dymond's essay on (mainly) Cursus A, he said how Cursus B was part of, Early ground-plan (after D.P. Dymond) Early photo of Rudston B (after J.K.St Joseph) "a large complex of crop marks. The largest feature is the squared, tapering end of Cursus B, which can be traced for 700 yards in a north-easterly direction. No surface remains seem to survive in an area intensively ploughed, except for a swelling under a hedge on the line of the south-eastern bank (at TA 0834 6703). West of the square end and partly overlying it, are several small rectangular enclosures, which are probably part of a later (?Romano-British) settlement and field-system. Also in this tangle of crop-marks there are four roughly circular shapes, which may well be barrow circles associated with the end of the cursus. On certain barrow just south of the end of the cursus has an inner ring of pits. Where the cursus is lat visible to the north-east, it is headed roughly for the monolith ¾-mile away. The width of Cursus B is approximately 90 yards between ditch centres. It has its square end on the forward slope of a ridge (like Cursus A) at a height of 180 feet OD, and descends towards the village, which is visible from the end, through a shallow valley." Dymond's note about the alignment feature of this cursus, towards the gigantic Rudston monolith, was one echoed in the Hedges & Buckley (1981) survey. They noted: "At Rudston, the B cursus extended eastwards aligns upon the Rudston monolith in Rudston churchyard. Destruction of standing stones elsewhere may have removed similar associations between the stones and cursuses." This alignment feature was also confirmed by cognitive archaeologist and alignment specialist, Paul Devereux (Pennick & Devereux 1989) in his survey of cursus monuments. Typical of these fascinating antiquities, nothing of any worth has been found along the length of the cursus that can give us any clues to its nature and function. However, the presence of this and three others close by indicates that the region was an exceptionally important one in the cosmology of our prehistoric ancestors. Four of these giant linear cursus monuments occur in relative proximity, and there was an excess of ancient tombs and, of course, we have the largest standing stone in the British Isles stood in the middle of it all. A full multidisciplinary analysis of the antiquities in this region is long overdue. To our ancestors, the mythic terrain and emergent monuments hereby related to each other symbiotically, as both primary aspects (natural) and epiphenomena (man-made) of terra mater: a phenomenon long known to comparative religious students and anthropologists exploring the animistic natural relationship of landscape, tribal groups and monuments. Stanwell Cursus, Heathrow, Surrey Posted by megalithix on December 1, 2010 Cursus (destroyed): OS Grid Reference - TQ 0545 7431 to TQ 0448 7782 Also Known as: 1. Heathrow Cursus Archaeology & History Running roughly north-to-south, this cursus was 2¼ miles long (3600 metres) and comprised of two linear sections from a field in Stanwell up through the western side of Heathrow Airport averaging, curiously, just 24 yards (22m) across. Of course nothing of it can be seen today as the airport and surrounding industrial crap has destroyed it. The cursus had a lengthy internal bank along its length. During excavation work done at the Perry Oaks Sludge Works section in Hillingdon, archaeologists found evidence for a short avenue of posts, about 110 feet long, apparently constructed prior to the cutting of the cursus' ditches, following the same direction/alignment of the subsequent monument. In Roy Loveday's (2006) survey of cursus monuments he said this of Heathrow's cursus: "This site, striking across land so flat that it has been selected for Heathrow Airport, extends for some 4km, crosses two rivers and stops by a stream -- originally perhaps a more major river. So straight and apparently narrow is it (20m) that it was originally taken to be a Roman road. Early excavation seemed to support the idea: vestigal remains areas of gravel between the ditches were scored by shallow gullies resembling cart ruts. Later excavation, however, demonstrated that the ditches of a Late Bronze Age field system cut across it and several scarps of Peterborough Ware (i.e., pottery - PB) were recovered from its ditches. Evidence also emerged of a short (50m) ragged, double row of posts, removed before the ditches were dug on the same alignment. That this was a bank barrow was hinted at by the Charlecote test and by reduction in the depth of field ditches as they crossed the central area." Confirmation that an earthen bank of some kind running near the middle of the cursus was confirmed by analysis of early Ministry of Defence aerial photographs. For those who would like a more detailed description on this site, I refer you to the excellent paper by o' Connell. (1990) ...to be continued... References: Barclay, Alistair, et al, Lines in the Landscape, Oxford Archaeological Unit 2003. Loveday, Roy, Inscribed Across the Landscape, Tempus: Stroud 2006. o' Connell, M., "The Heathrow-Stanwell Cursus," in Current Archaeology, 9, 1986. o' Connell, M., "Excavations during 1979-1985 of a Multi-Period Site at Stanwell," in Surrey Archaeological Collections, 80, 1990. © Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian Posted in Cursus Monuments, Middlesex | Tagged: alignment, antiquities, Archaeology, Bronze Age, ceremonial, cursus, cursuses, death, Heathrow, ley-lines, leys, London, Middlesex, neolithic, ritual | Leave a Comment » Springfield Cursus, Chelmsford, Essex Posted by megalithix on September 4, 2010 Cursus Monument (destroyed): OS Grid Reference - TL 735 084 Also Known as: 1. Springfield Barnes Cursus Archaeology & History The first cursus monument discovered in Essex, archaeologists were fortunate when they came to excavate the site in 1979 as they found it almost complete. A rarity these days! About 45 yards across and 750 yards long, this dead straight linear monument aligning northeast to southwest had squared terminii at both ends. (of the Bi category, as Loveday called them) And it appears to have had quite a long period of use. Springfield Cursus (painting by Frank Gardiner) The ditch that constitutes the very outline of the cursus -- averaging between 3-4 feet in depth all round -- was cut into the earth in the neolithic period. It had small `entrances' at certain points along its longer axis, both on the east and west sides. The flat ends of the cursus were both `closed', without entrances or breaks of any kind. Some depositional remains were found scattered at different spots along the course of the ditch: neolithic pottery and flints in both the northern and eastern ditches, but archaeologists were unsure whether these deposits were left at the time the monument was in use, or at a later period -- though it seemed consensus opinion that the deposits were from a period when the cursus was in use. Charcoal remains were also found, but these were associated with an internal timber circle that was erected within the northeastern end of the cursus. The timber circle was found to have consisted of 14 upright wooden posts arranged in a near-complete ring, some 26 metres in diameter. It seems highly likely that this part of the monument had some ritual or ceremonial function relating to the dead ("mortuary practices" is the term used at the moment!). Later excavation work here in 1984 found there to be various other linear and pit-like features within the confines of the monument, and what seemed to be the remains of a barrow beyond its eastern end. Archaeologist David McOmish (2003), thought that "alignment is also significant," saying that the "Springfield Cursus, 700 metres long, is aligned on a smaller enclosure some 300 metres away." The alignment potential here was first suggested by Pennick & Devereux (1989), albeit pointing "to the village of Wexford just over two miles to the southwest." McOmish also suggested there may have been some an astronomical reason for the alignment of the monument NE-SW, but I'm not aware whether this has been explored further. The creation of these huge monuments had obvious relationships with human death rites, the spirits of trees, and celestial gods. But much more research is needed if we're to find out more about these prehistoric giants in the landscape. References: Buckley, D.G., Hedges, John & Brown, N., "Excavations at a Neolithic Cursus, Springfield, Essex, 1979-85," in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, volume 67, 2001. Hedges, John D. & Buckley, D.G., Springfield Cursus and the Cursus Problem, Essex County Council 1981. Loveday, Roy, Inscribed Across the Landscape: The Cursus Enigma, Tempus: Stroud 2006. McOmish, David, `Cursus: Solving a 6000-year-old Puzzle', in British Archaeology, 69, March 2003. Pennick, Nigel & Devereux, Paul, Lines on the Landscape, Hale: London 1989. Links: 1. Unlocking Essex's Past: The Springfield Cursus and Associated Remains © Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian Posted in Cursus Monuments, Essex | Tagged: alignments, antiquities, Archaeology, Bronze Age, ceremonial, Chelmer, Chelmsford, Cursus Monuments, cursuses, death, Essex, leys, neolithic, prehistoric sites, ritual sites, sacred sites | Leave a Comment » Sonning Cursus, Reading, Berkshire Posted by megalithix on January 8, 2010 Cursus Monument: OS Grid Reference - SU 7669 7599 Archaeology & History Sonning Cursus & other ancient remains (after Ford 1987) Barely visible nowadays, the site was described by archaeologist Steve Ford (1987) as, "a very convincing cropmark with markedly rectangular end with entrance gap" at its far eastern end. This once impressive looking cursus aligns east-west and is found amidst a cluster of other neolithic and Bronze Age monuments. It was first discovered by aerial surveying in 1959, but still remains unexcavated (I think!). The dead straight neolithic monument, "consists of parallel ditches 45 metres apart extending for at least 200m west towards lower ground. The eastern end has a (flattened) terminal with a single entrance, whereas the western end is untraceable beyond a modern field boundary." In Roy Loveday's (2006) survey, this cursus was stated as measuring 250m in length and 35m across. Although the western end hasn't been located, it's highly probable that it reached to the River Thames a short distance away. An excavation at one of the three `enclosures' beyond the eastern end of this monument, revealed it have been built in the late neolithic period. References: Ford, Steve, East Berkshire Archaeological Survey, Berkshire County Council 1987. Loveday, Roy, Inscribed across the Landscape, Tempus: Stroud 2006. Links: 1. Short Notes on the Site at Pastscape © Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian Posted in Berkshire, Cursus Monuments | Tagged: alignments, antiquities, Archaeology, Berkshire, Bronze Age, Charvil, Cursus Monuments, cursuses, Earthworks, leys, neolithic, prehistoric sites, Reading, ritual landscape, River Thames, Sonning, Twyford | Leave a Comment » Maxey Cursus, Cambridgeshire Posted by megalithix on October 23, 2008 Cursus: OS Grid Reference - TF 125 078 Archaeology & History Much of this site has unfortunately been completely destroyed. Thought by Colin Burgess (2001) to be one of the earliest cursus monuments, it was Paul Devereux (1989) who gave the clearest early description of this site,* telling: "This site is to be found...between the village of Maxey and the River Welland, south of Market Deeping. When discovered by aerial photography the cursus was already partially destroyed... The northwest segment `starts' almost on the banks of the Welland and goes southeast on a straight course to an obliterated point where a change of alignment occurred, and the cursus continues in a different direction. The total known length is 1930 yards (1.77km), and the width averages 190 feet (58 metres). The ditches themselves display subtly different orientations, but are in straight sections. The investigations of F. Pryor suggests that the northwest length of the cursus was constructed long after the southeast portion, when the latter's ditches had become silted up (banks do not seem to have been present). The southernmost ditch of the southeastern section bisects two circular sites. Site A is particularly interesting. It occurs just east of the...change in direction, or junction of the two cursuses if such was the case." And such is the case, as recent discoveries have found. But before this was known for sure, Devereux wrote, that "a segment of cursus ditch emerges from this vaguely henge-like site, 450 feet in diameter, in the direction of the nearby church" of St. Peter. The "henge-like site" described here has been defined by Oswald, Dyer and Barber (2001) as one of the enigmatic 'causewayed enclosure' monuments - out of which emerges the other seperate alignment, the Etton Cursus, heading southeast. References: Burgess, Colin, The Age of Stonehenge, Phoenix: London 2001. Loveday, Colin, Inscribed Across the Landscape, Tempus: Stroud 2006. Oswald, A., Dyer, C. & Barber, M., The Creation of Monuments, EH: Swindon 2001. Pennick, N. & Devereux. P., Lines on the Landscape, Hale: London 1989. Pryor, Francis, Britain BC, Harper-Collins: London 2003. * The OS-reference for this site is of the northwestern end of the cursus. The southeastern terminal is at TF139063. Posted in Cambridgeshire, Cursus Monuments | Tagged: alignment, Archaeology, Bronze Age, Cambridge, cursus, cursuses, Market Deeping, Maxey, neolithic monuments | Leave a Comment » Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Andreas09 by Andreas Viklund.