'K then: see that long low bank just beyond the rise in the land? That's a #medieval furlong boundary - it re-uses & so preserves a long #prehistoric linear bank of unknown date/purpose that runs from high to low ground just W of Cambridge. And...
2. ... it’s just one (arrowed) of a whole system of similar banks preserved in medieval field boundaries, parish boundaries, footpaths, roads & hedgerows across c.77 sq.km. - the light grey lines on the map. They run across a valley from one plateau to the other
3. ... Thing is, most prehistoric landscapes are preserved because the land they lie on was on/was converted to grass. This one survives *because* it has been continuously exploited as arable or pasture for the last four millennia: the boundaries have been in use all that time.
4. And here’s another in the same system. It looks like nothing, of course, when you see it, but i think it's just so exciting - and it's just an everyday landscape on the way to/from work. How many more similar landscapes are out there? There must be loads. 😝END
PS @HistoricEngland ‘s lidar project (eg photo) shows that the landscape on the slopes of the Bourn Brook was typical of W Cambs landscapes extending from the fen-edge in the N to the Icknield Way in the S. More details via: historicengland.org.uk/research/resea…. And academia.edu/6795369/The_ro….
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