Terp

Last updated December 22, 2024 • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

A terp, also known as a wierde, woerd, warf, warft, werf, werve, wurt or værft, is an artificial dwelling mound found on the North European Plain that has been created to provide safe ground during storm surges, high tides and sea or river flooding. The various terms used reflect the regional dialects of the North European region.

These mounds occur in the coastal parts of the Netherlands (in the provinces of Zeeland, Friesland and Groningen), in southern parts of Denmark and in the north-western parts of Germany where, before dykes were made, floodwater interfered with daily life. These can be found especially in the region Ostfriesland and Kreis Nordfriesland in Germany. In Kreis Nordfriesland on the Halligen, people still live on terps unprotected by dykes. Terps also occur in the Rhine and Meuse river plains in the central part of the Netherlands. Furthermore, terps can be found more to the south in the province North Holland, like Avendorp near the town of Schagen, and in the towns of Bredene en Leffinge near Oostende in Belgium. Other terps can be found at the mouth of the river IJssel like the one at the hamlet Kampereiland, the province Overijssel and on the former Island of Schokland in the former Zuiderzee, today the reclaimed land Noordoostpolder. Even underneath the town of Den Helder in the north of the province North Holland lies an old terp, named Het Torp.

Terpen in the province of Friesland

In the Dutch province of Friesland, an artificial dwelling hill is called terp (plural terpen).^[1]Terp means "village" in Old Frisian and is cognate with English thorp, Danish torp, German Dorf, modern West Frisian doarp and Dutch dorp.

Terpen were built to "curb natural influences" such as floods by being a part of a network of terpen that rerouted large-scale flooding.^[1]

Historical Frisian settlements were built on artificial terpen up to 15 metres (49 ft) high to be safe from floods in periods of rising sea levels. The first terp-building period dates to 500 BC, the second from 200 BC to 50 BC. In the mid-3rd century, the rise of sea level was so dramatic that the clay district was deserted, and settlers returned only around AD 400. A third terp-building period dates from AD 700 (Old Frisian times). This ended with the coming of the dike somewhere around 1200. During the 18th and 19th centuries, many terps were destroyed to use the fertile soil they contained to fertilize farm fields. Terpen were usually well fertilized by the decay of the rubbish and personal waste deposited by their inhabitants over centuries.

Wierden in the province of Groningen

In the Dutch province of Groningen an artificial dwelling mound is called a wierde (plural wierden). As in Friesland, the first wierde was built around 500 BC or maybe earlier.

List of artificial dwelling mounds

Place names in the Frisian coastal region ending in -werd, -ward, -uert etc. refer to the fact that the village was built on an artificial dwelling mound (wierde). The greater part of the terp villages, though, have names ending in -um, from -heem or -hiem, meaning (farm)yard, grounds. There are a few village names in Friesland ending with -terp (e.g. Ureterp), referring not to a dwelling mound but merely to the Old Frisian word for village. The first element of the toponyms is quite often a person's name or is simply describing the environmental features of the settlement (e.g. Rasquert (prov. Groningen) Riazuurđ: wierde with reed, where reed grows).

Some 1,200 terpen are recorded in Groningen and Friesland alone. They range from abandoned settlements to mounds with only one or a few farmhouses, to larger villages and old towns. A few of them are listed below.

Friesland

Groningen

Northern Germany

Loquard (East Frisia)
Rysum (East Frisia)
Eckwarden (Butjadingen)
Itzwärden (Land Wursten)

Literature

Dirk Meier (2006), Die Nordseeküste: Geschichte einer Landschaft (in German), Heide: Boyens, ISBN 978-3-8042-1182-7
Moritz Heyne (1899): Das deutsche Wohnungswesen. Von den ältesten geschichtlichen Zeiten bis zum 16. Jahrhundert, Bremen 2012.

Related Research Articles

The Frisian languages are a closely related group of West Germanic languages, spoken by about 400,000 Frisian people, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. The Frisian languages are the closest living language group to the Anglic languages; the two groups make up the Anglo-Frisian languages group and together with the Low German dialects these form the North Sea Germanic languages. However, modern English and Frisian are not mutually intelligible, nor are Frisian languages intelligible among themselves, owing to independent linguistic innovations and language contact with neighboring languages.

Friesland, historically and traditionally known as Frisia, named after the Frisians, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, and south of the Wadden Sea. As of January 2023, the province had a population of about 660,000, and a total area of 5,753 km² (2,221 sq mi).

The Frisians are an ethnic group indigenous to the coastal regions of the Netherlands, north-western Germany and southern Denmark, and during the Early Middle Ages in the north-western coastal zone of Flanders, Belgium. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia.

Frisia is a cross-border cultural region in Northwestern Europe. Stretching along the Wadden Sea, it encompasses the north of the Netherlands and parts of northwestern Germany. Wider definitions of "Frisia" may include the island of Rem and the other Danish Wadden Sea Islands. The region is traditionally inhabited by the Frisians, a West Germanic ethnic group.

East Frisia or East Friesland is a historic region in modern Lower Saxony, Germany. The modern province is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia and to the west of Landkreis Friesland but is known to have extended much further inland before modern representations of the territory. Administratively, East Frisia consists of the districts Aurich, Leer and Wittmund and the city of Emden. It has a population of approximately 469,000 people and an area of 3,142 square kilometres (1,213 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Friesland (region)</span> Contemporary region in the Northwest of the Netherlands

West Friesland is a contemporary region in the Northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.

Burgum is the largest and administrative town of the municipality of Tytsjerksteradiel, in the Dutch province of Friesland. It had a population of 10,058 inhabitants in January 2017.

West Frisia is a term that, when used in an international context, refers to the traditionally Frisian areas that are located west of the Dollart. Along with East Frisia and North Frisia, it is one of the most commonly used subdivisions of Frisia. In its narrowest sense, the term is synonymous with the province of Friesland. Within the Netherlands, however, it is mostly used to refer to the region of West Friesland, located west of Friesland.

Aalsum is a village in the Dutch province of Friesland. It is located in the municipality Noardeast-Fryslân, about 1 km north of Dokkum. It had a population of around 125 in January 2017

Hooge is a municipality in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Ezinge is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Westerkwartier, about 15 km northwest of the city of Groningen. Ezinge is the oldest, constantly inhabited village in The Netherlands and is in archeological context referred to as "the Pompeii of the North".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middelzee</span>

The Middelzee, also called Bordine, was the estuary mouth of the River Boorne now in the Dutch province of Friesland. It ran from as far south as Sneek northward to the Wadden Sea and marked the border between main Frisian regions of Westergoa (Westergo) and Eastergoa (Oostergo). Other historical names for the Middelzee include Bordaa, Borndiep, Boerdiep, and Bordena. The names like Bordine, mean "border".

Wâlterswâld is a village in Dantumadiel municipality, Friesland, the Netherlands. The village had a population of approximately 920 in 2017.

Burdaard is a village in Noardeast-Fryslân in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of around 1,173 in January 2017. Before 2019, the village was part of the Ferwerderadiel municipality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastrum</span> Village in Friesland, Netherlands

Eastrum is a village in Noardeast-Fryslân in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of around 188 in January 2017. Before 2019, the village was part of the Dongeradeel municipality.

Waaxens is a small village in Noardeast-Fryslân municipality in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of only 35 in January 2017. Before 2019, the village was part of the Dongeradeel municipality.

Sibrandahûs is a small village in the Dantumadiel municipality of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of around 40 in 2017. It is located just west of Dokkum.

Rinsumageast is a village in the Dantumadiel municipality of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of around 965 in 2017.

Frisia is a small region in the north of the modern day country known as the Netherlands. In the Iron Age, the ancestors of the modern Frisians first migrated south out of modern day Scandinavia to the south west where they began to settle along the coast. The archeological record goes all the way back to the Neolithic era, however, the first written sources for Frisian history come from Roman records, like Tacitus' account of an unsuccessful Frisian attack on a Roman fort. Frisia would go on to distinguish itself culturally from other Germanic peoples but remained recognizably Germanic nonetheless. In the Early Medieval era, Frisians took the seas with well crafted ships to perform trade and to raid other ports, cities, and towns in other parts of Europe. For most of its modern history, Frisia, or Frysland, has been under the control of the Netherlands but today their language is co-official with Dutch at the provincial level. Frisian is the most closely related language to English aside from Scots.

Niehove is a village in the municipality of Westerkwartier in Groningen, Netherlands. The village was located on the island of Humsterland in the former Lauwerszee from c. 800 until c. 1500. It is a terp village with two ring roads and the church in the middle. The village is a protected site. In 2019, Elsevier Weekblad named Niehove the most beautiful village of the Netherlands.

References

1 2 Rietbergen, P. J. A. N. (2000). A Short History of the Netherlands: From Prehistory to the Present Day (4th ed.). Amersfoort: Bekking. p. 13. ISBN 90-6109-440-2. OCLC 52849131.

External links

Warften/Wurten (page of the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History)
Webseite zu den Warftendörfern Ziallerns und Rysum (private site)
Historical site of Wüppel in the Wangerland
Water supply in the North Frisian Marshland (private site)
Manual making a Terp in 12 Steps (post of the Frisia Coast Trail)
Vereniging voor terpenonderzoek (Foundation for terp research, the Netherlands)

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[:02-1] 1 2 Rietbergen, P. J. A. N. (2000). A Short History of the Netherlands: From Prehistory to the Present Day (4th ed.). Amersfoort: Bekking. p. 13. ISBN 90-6109-440-2. OCLC 52849131.

[1]