Terps
A mound (also Warf , shipyards , Worth , Wurt , Wurth , Wierde or Terp ) is a filled-up of earth mound, the protection of people and animals in storm surges serves. Depending on the size, individual farmsteads or village settlements (Warfen or Wurtendörfer) can be found on a terp. The shape of the terps is usually round, but sometimes also elongated. They occur in the north-west German marshland , in the North Sea on the Halligen as well as in the Netherlands and in south-west Denmark . The already since the 3rd century BC Long before the dyke was built, the hills that were formed were the only effective flood protection .
Surname
For Warft other terms are well known as Warf , Wurt , shipyard , Wierde . In Terps there is a secondary t- extension. Originally and still today in East Frisia , the term was called warf , which is derived from 'advertise' and not, as is often assumed by the people, from 'throw'. The equivalent name mound against it comes from the Low German ( Old Saxon Wurd , farmstead, soil '(> niederdt. Wörde , Word , Wurt )). English -worth is etymologically related .
This word is not related to New High German “ Werder ”, Upper German Wörd , Wörth (<Old High German warid , werid “river island”). In the Netherlands they are mainly found in the provinces of Friesland , where they are called terp or wierde , and Groningen . In Denmark they are called more often .
The group also includes artificially elevated economic areas for protection against the neighboring waters: the shipyard for shipbuilding and in English wharf with the meaning of 'warehouse (house)'.
First descriptions
The first artificially raised earth mounds in the coastal area are dated to the 3rd century BC. Dated. The Roman chronicler Pliny reported in his Naturalis historia about the Chauken people who lived along the North Sea coast 2000 years ago:
“We saw the Chauken peoples in the north, called the larger and the smaller. There, twice in the period of each day and each night, the sea pours in great motion over an infinite surface and reveals an eternal strife of nature in an area in which it is doubtful whether it belongs to the land or to the sea. There a deplorable people inhabit high mounds of earth that are built with their hands according to the measure of the highest tide. In their built huts they resemble seafarers when the water covers the land around them, and castaways when it has retreated and their huts lie there like stranded ships alone. From their huts they hunt down fish that have stayed behind. They are not allowed to keep cattle like their neighbors, not even to fight with wild animals, since there is no bush. They weave ropes from reeds and rushes to make nets for fishing. And by drying the mud they have grasped with their hands more in the wind than in the sun, they warm their food and the limbs frozen by the north wind through the earth. * They only drink rainwater, which is collected in pits in the forecourt of the house. "
* That means: peat was used for cooking and heating .
Terp villages
Terps have always served with " land under " man and beast as a refuge. They were built for single farms and villages.
construction
Terp villages have a similar structure to a round village . Their courtyards are arranged in a circle on the hill and face outwards at the terp foot. A ring path leads around the terp. Footpaths radiate outwards from the center of the facilities and continue as field paths in the corridor.
Since the entire hill acts like a sponge, there is a pond-like depression in all settlements as a rainwater collection point , the so-called fething . From this the residents drew drinking water for their cattle. Before the dyke was built, terps were washed around by sea water so that no wells could be dug outside the terp. The drinking water for the residents was collected in a special container, the so-called Sood , into which the rainwater from the roofs was channeled.
Development history of the terp villages
In a phase of low sea level around the turn of the times, flat settlements initially arose near the sea in many places in the north-west German marches . As a result of rising storm surge levels, however, the level of the settlements had to be increased. To do this, the residents made a ring-shaped, approximately 1 m high hill from dung and clay for each new house . The constant increase resulted in yard or core mounds. From their amalgamation to the Dorfwarft, larger terp villages emerged in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD on an area 4 m higher than the surrounding area, such as Feddersen-Wierde and Busenwurth .
After these old terps were mostly abandoned in the 4th and 5th centuries, a new settlement of the Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein coastal area by Frisians and Saxons began in the 7th century. Flat settlements emerged again in a phase of low sea level, which in the 9th century had to be raised to terps.
During the first millennium mounds with were crap (possibly cover with retail Soden), since the 11th century mainly Klei aufgewarftet.
Terps were built especially until the marshes were dyed in the 11th century and until then offered the only protection against storm surges. On the Halligen they are the only flood protection to this day.
Terrain settlements today
Numerous former terp villages can still be found along the German North Sea coast. Wellinghusen in Dithmarschen and North Friesland ( Tofting , Elisenhof , Poppenbüll , Waygaard ) are examples of Schleswig-Holstein . The municipality of Krummhörn offers a large collection of old terp villages in East Frisia , especially through the village of Rysum . In Friesland there are numerous terps in the Wangerland , such as Minsen . More can be found in the independent city of Wilhelmshaven and in Butjadingen . In the Elbe-Weser triangle , the terps in the land of Wursten and in the land of Hadeln have been well researched.
Original terp villages can often be recognized by their place names ending in "warden": Breddewarden , Eckwarden , Einswarden , Fedderwarden , Golzwarden , Hammelwarden , Langwarden , Sengwarden (cf. Werder ).
The village of Ziallerns near Hohenkirchen is a well-preserved terp village in the Wangerland . It was placed under monument protection as early as 1937, so that the old structure of the paths and courtyards was preserved. The rainwater collection point that every terp had at its disposal can also be found here. In a former workers' house there is a terp information center representing the many similar village complexes in the Wangerland. The Warfendorf Wüppels is also in the Wangerland . Around the village square there is a church, school, village jug, poor house, sexton's house and pastorey.
Newer terps
Terps are indispensable on Halligen, which are only protected by a summer dike . The terp with the largest area is the Hanswarft on Hallig Hooge with three hectares . The youngest terp is the Neupeterswarft on Langeness , which was completed after five years of construction in 1896 ; However, it has been abandoned since 1962 when the residential building there was destroyed in a storm surge .
For flood protection in Hamburg's HafenCity , which was built in 2001, mostly terps were built instead of dykes or flood protection walls.
Terps in other parts of the world
There are also terps in other regions of the world, for example in the Hertenrits nature reserve in Suriname .
literature
- Dirk Meier : The North Sea Coast: History of a Landscape . Boyens, Heide 2006, ISBN 978-3-8042-1182-7 .
- Moritz Heyne (1899): The German Housing. From the earliest historical times to the 16th century , Bremen 2012.
Web links
- Terps / Wurten (website of the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History)
- Website for the terp villages Ziallerns and Rysum (private site)
- Historical place Wüppels in Wangerland
- Water supply in the North Frisian marshland (private side)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wurt. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 30 : Wilb – Hyssop - (XIV, 2nd section). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1960, Sp. 2323–2326 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
- ↑ Terps instead of dykes: flood protection in HafenCity. hafencity.com, accessed March 31, 2018