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      2 Date

    The cursus building tradition is often regarded as being solely of
    late Neolithic date, but over the past decade a series of
    radiocarbon determinations on bone and charcoal from the primary
    ditch fills of the Dorset Cursus, Dorset, and the Drayton Cursus,
    Oxfordshire, suggests that at least some cursus were constructed in
    the first half of the third millennium RCYBC, perhaps as early as
    2800 RCYBC. Datable finds from cursus are few, but early Neolithic
    pottery has been found in the primary silting of some ditches, and
    Peterborough ware, grooved ware, and beaker pottery has frequently
    been found in upper ditch fills. That some cursus were constructed
    in the later Neolithic is evident from the fact that Mortlake style
    pottery was found under the bank of the cursus at Drayton, Oxfordshire.

    Present evidence therefore suggests a currency for the construction
    and use of cursus throughout much of the middle and late Neolithic,
    perhaps spanning five or six centuries between 2800 and 2200 RCYBC.
    This would accord with the stratigraphic evidence which allows
    cursus to be contemporary with, or later than, causewayed enclosures
    at Etton, Cambridgeshire, and Fornham All Saint's, Suffolk, later
    than a long mortuary enclosure at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire,
    and earlier than henges at Maxey, Cambridgeshire, and Thornborough,
    North Yorkshire.

    The lifespan of individual cursus is hard to gauge, but evidence
    from recently investigated sites suggests that they were used over
    considerable periods of time and that their longevity was achieved
    either by recutting the ditch as at Scorton, North Yorkshire, or by
    digging new sections of ditch as at Maxey, Cambridgeshire.

    Insufficient dating evidence exists to assess the typological
    development of cursus, but it has been suggested that the regularly
    shaped square-ended variety (type B below) were generally later than
    the round-end variety (type A below).