View WSW of the surviving S bank & external ditch of the Dorset Cursus Neolithic linear earthwork ( long) on Bottlebush Down, England, UK
View WSW of the surviving S bank & external ditch of the Dorset Cursus Neolithic linear earthwork on Bottlebush Down, England, UK. In the 3rd millennium BC a pair of parallel banks 90m (295 ft) apart with external ditches were constructed running NE-SW across the chalk downland of Cranborne Chase for (6 miles): the longest known cursus monument in Britain. The N bank & ditch here have been flattened & the earthwork is generally only visible as a cropmark. Incorporating some earlier monuments such as long barrows, the Cursus may have been some kind of sacred routeway, spirit path or processional way; a ceremonial enclosure; a track for games, races, hunting, executions & funerals; a spiritually charged boundary or expression of ownership.
Size: 3780px × 2658px
Location: Dorset Cursus, Bottlebush Down, Sixpenny Handley, Blandford Forum, Dorset, England, UK
Photo credit: © Mick Sharp / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 3rd, afternoon, ancient, archaeological, archaeology, art, autumn, bank, bc, blandford, bottlebush, boundary, britain, british, ceremonial, chalk, chase, cranborne, cursus, ditch, dorset, downland, earthen, earthwork, enclosure, england, english, entertainments, farmland, feature, fence, forum, games, grassy, great, handley, isles, land, landscape, late, linear, millennium, monument, neolithic, path, pathway, prehistoric, prehistory, processional, race, ritual, routeway, sacred, scheduled, sixpenny, spirit, track, trackway, uk
