Re: Priddy Henges? | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Littlestone Nov 27, 2006 22:50:31

Replying to moss

...hurdling could also have been used.

Yes, one of the interesting things about the Avenues leading into Avebury is their width - they really are wide for a purely (human) ceremonial route. The sphinx-lined avenues leading to Karnack Temple, for example, are quite narrow by comparison. The same generous width of the Avebury Avenues also applies to the Chelmer (Springfield) Cursus that once led down from a wooden circle at one end of the cursus to the river at the other. I can't help thinking that the Chelmer Cursus might have been a clearly defined, and as far as livestock are concerned a safe and easy route to follow, from one end of the cursus to the Chelmer River and water meadows at the other (where incidentally cattle still graze today).

juamei Nov 27, 2006 23:05:58

Replying to Littlestone

And yet the Dorset Cursus goes over ground which wouldn't be an easy and safe route for livestock. Treehouse sums it up here:

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/36381

"If the Cursus was a processional route then the processors would have had to fall down/climb this cliff as they precessed. The land just below it (the seasonal pond, with a modern wellhead in it) would have been very boggy in the winter. Not the ideal route for a procession."

There are other bits along the route as well which wouldn't be good.

nigelswift Nov 28, 2006 07:48:43

Replying to Littlestone

their width....

Well yes. I'm thinking drovers tracks and Richard Jeffries' description of the Ridgway...
"With varying width, from twenty to fifty yards, it runs like a green ribbon … a width that allows a flock of sheep to travel easily side by side."