Cursus

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Cursus (plural 'cursūs' or 'cursuses') was a name given by early British archaeologists such as William Stukeley to the large parallel lengths of banks with external ditches which they thought were early Roman athletic courses, hence the Latin name cursus, meaning "course". Cursus monuments are now understood to be Neolithic structures and represent some of the oldest prehistoric monumental structures of the British Isles; cursus may have been of ceremonial function. They range in length from 50 yards to almost 6 miles and the distance between the parallel earthworks can be up to 100 yards. Banks at the terminal ends enclose the cursus. This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cursus", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.