Cudgel dam
A Knüppeldamm , Prügelweg , Knüppelweg or Bohlenweg is a path paved by logs or planks , which leads through a moor , a swampy area or an area that is difficult to drive on or walk on for other reasons with little load-bearing ground.
Construction and mode of operation
Billet dams or prehistoric moor paths have been known since the Mesolithic and were a widespread road construction method up into the 16th century.
To build a billet dam, the timbers were placed on edge timbers at right angles to the direction of movement and covered with additional edge timbers on both sides. Above and below edge timbers were then connected by willow or later also by wire. Instead of the stick and were often fascinated used.
The load force acting over the small contact area of a wheel, an animal's hoof or a human foot is distributed over a much larger area of the ground via the one or two planks or fascines that are currently touched and thus reduces the contact pressure (= force / area) and thus that Sink in. Therefore, a certain support surface and a certain inherent rigidity of the planks or fascines are necessary, and therefore a minimum diameter is advantageous. On the other hand, the sticks shouldn't be too coarse in order not to let the wheels rumble too much and hooves or feet not tilt too much.
The load-bearing elements are specifically loaded there by up to twice as much per area near their ends and would sink correspondingly deeper, which is absorbed by support elements lying transversely to these (and along the path). Longitudinal elements tied on top at the edges protect against sliding with a bike or leg. At least as long as the wood is still fresh and not soaked with water, it is specifically lighter than the semi-liquid mud, also carries by means of buoyancy and therefore does not sink by itself.
literature
- Hajo Hayen : The Bohlenweg VI (Pr) in the Great Moor on the Dümmer. (= Material booklets on the prehistory and early history of Lower Saxony (MUFN). Booklet 15). Lax, Hildesheim 1979, ISBN 3-7848-1515-4 .
- Hajo Hayen: Plank paths - bridges over the moors. In: Of spearheads and stone graves. Prehistory and early history in the Emsland. Emsländischer Heimatbund (Ed.), Sögel 1982, ISBN 3-88077-104-X .
