Causewayed enclosures are a type of large prehistoric earthworks common to the early Neolithic Europe. More than 100 examples are recorded in France, 70 in England and further sites are known in Scandinavia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Northern Ireland and Slovakia. In civil engineering, earthworks are engineering works created through the moving of massive quantities of soil or unformed stone. ... The Neolithic, (Greek neos=new, lithos=stone, or New Stone Age) was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. ... World map showing location of Europe When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ... Scandinavia, Fennoscandia, and the Kola Peninsula. ... Royal motto: Quis separabit (Latin: Who will separate?) Northern Irelands location within the UK Official languages English, Irish, Ulster Scots Capital and largest city Belfast First Minister Office suspended Area  - Total Ranked 4th 13,843 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 4th 1,685,267 122/km² NUTS 1...

Causewayed enclosure is preferred to the older term causewayed camp as it has been demonstrated that the sites did not necessarily serve as occupation sites.

They are often hilltop sites, encircled by between one and four segmented concentric ditches, with an internal bank, also segmented. Lowland enclosures are larger than hilltop ones. Crossing the ditches at intervals are causeways which give the monuments their names. It appears that the ditches were excavated in sections, leaving the wide causeways intact in between. They should not be confused with segmented, or causewayed ring ditches, which are smaller and relate only to funerary activity or with hillforts which are later and had a definite defensive function. Evidence of timber palisades has been found at some sites such as Hambledon Hill. In modern usage, a causeway is a road elevated by a bank, usually across a broad body of water or wetland. ... A causewayed ring ditch is a type of prehistoric monument It comprises a roughly circular ditch, segmented by several causeways which cross it. ... The term hill fort is commonly used by archeologists to describe fortified enclosures located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. ... Palisade and Moat A palisade is a Medieval wooden fence or wall of variable height, used as a defensive structure. ... Hambledon Hill is a prehistoric hill fort in Dorset, England, situated in the Blackmore Vale five miles north of Blandford Forum. ...

Archaeological evidence implies that the enclosures were visited occasionally by Neolithic groups rather than being permanently occupied. It is possible that they represent a transitional period in the Neolithic before hunter-gatherer societies finally became fully settled. The presence of human remains in the banks and ditches of the enclosures has been seen as an attempt by the builders to connect their ancestors with the land and thus begin to anchor themselves to specific areas. Longitudinal sections excavated along the ditches by archaeologists suggest that they were repeatedly dug and redug by the builders who during each event would deliberately deposit pottery and human and animal bones in a what is considered to have been a regular ritual. Environmental archaeology suggests that the European landscape was in general heavily forested when the enclosures were built and that they were rare clearings in the woodland that were exploited for numerous social and economic activities. Importance and applicability Most of human history is not described by any written records. ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... Half-section through a Saxon pit In archaeology a section is a view of an excavated archaeological trench or feature showing the contents of that feature in two dimensions (vertical and horizontal) and thereby illustrating its profile and stratigraphy. ... A ritual is a formalised, predetermined set of symbolic actions generally performed in a particular environment at a regular, recurring interval. ... Environmental archaeology is the study of the long-term relationship between humans and their environments. ...

In the 1970s the archaeologist Peter Drewett suggested seven possible functions for the sites: This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1970s. ...

• Settlement
• Defence
• Cattle compounds or kraals
• Trade centres
• Communal meeting places for feasting and other social activities
• Cult/ritual centres
• Burial sites

(to which must be added the more recent idea that they were also used as landmarks, imprinting a local group's presence in the landscape for all to see.) Other interpretations have seen the causeways as symbolic of multi-directional access to the site by scattered communities, the enclosures as funerary centres for excarnation or the construction of the site being a communal act of creation by a fragmented society. Some enclosures are better situated for one activity than another and it is unlikely that they served any one purpose. A reference to colonization, or the resulting communities. ... Nakhal Fort, one of the best-preserved forts in Oman. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (called simply cows in vernacular usage) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... Kraal (also spelt craal or kraul) is an Afrikaans word for either an enclosure for horses, cattle and the like, or a native village surrounded by a palisade, mud wall, or other fencing, roughly circular in form. ... Village Feast. ... For the legal term denoting a ruling or law of great import, see landmark case For the former Las Vegas hotel and casino, see The Landmark Hotel and Casino. ... In archaeology and anthropology the term excarnation refers to the burial practice adopted by some societies of removing the flesh of the dead, leaving only the bones. ...

Animal remains (especially cattle bone), domestic waste and pottery have been found in at the sites but only limited evidence of any structures. Occupation evidence at Windmill Hill predates the creation of the enclosure. Generally, it appears that the ditches were permitted to silt up, even while the camps were in use, and then re-excavated episodically and it is unlikely that they had a strong defensive purpose. It may be that the earthworks were designed to keep wild animals rather than people out. The sequential addition of second, third and fourth circuits of banks and ditches may have come about through growing populations adding to the significance of their peoples' monument over time. In some cases, they appear to have evolved into more permanent settlements. A man shapes pottery as it turns on a wheel. ... Windmill Hill is a Neolithic causewayed enclosure in the English county of Wiltshire, situated around 3 miles north of Avebury. ...

Most causewayed enclosures have been ploughed away in the intervening millennia and are recognised through aerial archaeology. The first were constructed in the fifth millennium BCE and by the early third millennium BCE notable regional variations occur in their construction. French examples begin to demonstrate elaborate horn-shaped entrances which are interpreted by their excavators as being designed to impress from afar rather than serve any practical purpose. A farmer works the land in the traditional way with a horse and plough The plough (American spelling: plow) is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. ... Aerial archaeology is the study of archaeological remains by examining them from altitude. ...

Aubrey Burl considers that causewayed enclosure building decayed by 3000 BC with examples of more localised types of earthworks monuments replacing them. Examples in Britain include Stonehenge I, Flagstones, Duggleby Howe and Ring of Bookan, monuments which seem to have been predecessors of the later henge monuments. Aubrey Burl is a British archaeologist most well known for his studies into megalithic monuments and the nature of prehistoric rituals associated with them. ... Stonehenge Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Salisbury. ... Flagstones is the name of a late Neolithic causewayed enclosure in the English county of Dorset. ... Duggleby Howe (also known as Howe Hill, Duggleby) is one of the largest round barrows in Britain, located on the southern side of the Great Wold Valley in East Yorkshire, and is one of four such monuments in this area, known collectively as the Great barrows of East Yorkshire. ... A henge is a circular or sub-circular prehistoric enclosure defined by a raised circular bank, and a circular ditch usually running inside the bank. ...

Examples of causewayed enclosures include:

England

• Hambledon Hill
• Windmill Hill
• Hembury
• Coombe Hill.
• Some tor enclosures such as that at Carn Brea are believed to have served a similar purpose in south western Britain.

Hembury is a Neolithic causewayed enclosure near Honiton in Devon. ... Coombe Hill or Combe Hill is the name of a hill near Jevington in the English county of East Sussex. ... A tor enclosure is a prehistoric monument found in the south western part of the United Kingdom. ... Carn Brea is a hilltop site near Redruth in the county of Cornwall in the United Kingdom famous for its long history of human occupation. ...

France

• Champ Durand
• La Coterelle
• Diconche
• Chez Reine near Semussac
• La Mastine

Northern Ireland

• Donegore