1-191-642 - © London Museum/Heritage-Images

Cursus reconstruction, Middlesex. An artist's impression of a cursus, (avenue of two parallel ditches). This earthwork consists of ditches 22 metres apart which probably had flanking banks, and which run for at least 4 kilometers, from under the western edge of the modern Heathrow airport at Stanwell, across the River Colne (top), and the River Wraysbury, ending just before the Begley Ditch. Little is known about these cursus monuments but they were almost certainly connected with religious rituals, perhaps based on the sun or moon. At bottom right is a contemporary ceremonial enclosure.