| 翻訳と辞書 |
cross dyke
A cross dyke or cross-dyke (also referred to as a cross-ridge dyke, covered way, linear ditch, linear earthwork or spur dyke) is a linear earthwork believed to be a prehistoric land boundary that usually measures between in length.〔 A typical cross dyke consists of one or more ditches running in parallel with one or more raised banks.〔 Univallate cross dykes typically have a flat-bottomed ditch while the ditches of multivallate cross dykes possess a V-shaped cross-section. A defining characteristic of a cross dyke is that it cuts across the width of an upland ridge or the neck of an upland spur.〔English Heritage 1990a.〕 Cross dykes generally occur at altitudes over above mean sea level.〔English Heritage 1990c.〕
==Function==
Cross dykes were built over the course of approximately one thousand years from the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1500–1000 BC) onwards. Interpretations of the reason for their construction vary and include their use as defensive earthworks, cattle droveways, trackways, territorial limits and internal boundaries; current theories favour the latter two uses.〔 In southern England and southern Scotland, cross dykes are often found in association with hill forts. Cross dykes were control barriers that appear to have been a common response to upland conditions across Britain given similar social conditions. In Scotland the dykes do not appear to have served as territorial boundaries as was the case in Wessex.〔 In some cases, cross dykes block the ridgeline approaches to prehistoric settlements such as hill forts. Since such dykes would not have stopped livestock from looping around them on the steeper slopes, such dykes seem designed to block human passage.〔English Heritage May 2011, p. 5.〕 Archaeologist Andrew Fleming has suggested that the cross dykes of Yorkshire may have been Iron Age (c. 800 BC – AD 100) monuments designed to deter cattle raids.〔Fleming 1971, p. 23.〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
■ウィキペディアで「cross dyke」の詳細全文を読む
スポンサード リンク
| 翻訳と辞書 : 翻訳のためのインターネットリソース |
Copyright(C) kotoba.ne.jp 1997-2016. All Rights Reserved.
|
|