As for the business of being cut through the trees, I got the notion from Martin Green's book "A Landscape Revealed" where microscopic fragments of snail shell in the cursus bank belong to some species which favour open grassland or pasture and others which live only in forests. I don't think it could really be called wild wood at that point in time, but I suspect there were big chunks of virgin forest not far away, like on steeper slopes to the north.
If I'm not back by dinner time, send out the Mounties.
Rob
According to the book "Inscribed on the Landscape, the Cursus Enigma", snail evidence does point to some cursuses "built" in woodland, but these seem to be the exception, the majority, being on land that had been cleared and reverted to open grassland, again based on snail samples. The Dorset Cursus was one based on open grassland. Also of interest is the fact that the ditches aren't all that big, a lot being less than 0,5 metres deep, the demarcation of the area enclosed seeming to be the point, rather than the creation of a monument.
Cheers,
TE.
