Stonehenge Cursus - The Lesser Cursus

The Lesser Cursus

750m northwest of the western end of the Stonehenge Cursus lies the Lesser Cursus, a 400m long and 60m wide earthwork orientated west-southwest – north-northeast. Although its banks and ditches survived into the 20th century, ploughing since World War II has levelled it and it is only visible today as a cropmark. The Lesser Cursus was excavated in 1983 as part of the Stonehenge Environs Project. They discovered that the original earthworks was only half its current length, but was then extended. They also concluded, as had previously been thought, that it had no eastern terminal. The ditches and banks simply stop leaving the eastern end open. The project also discovered several red deer antler picks that have dated the monument to approximately 3000 BCE.