Bastions of turf: frisians, terpen and the re-adoption of a "working" landscape

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Terpen are dwelling mounds constructed from the sixth century BCE through the present. This thesis examines the landscapes formation and re-adoption through the fifth century. These mounds were built in several waves by ancient inhabitants of the windswept flood prone tidal flats of northern Netherlands. These mounds are an optimal cultural adaptation to this region's harsh wet environment. During the great demographic decline of the "Dark Ages" the terpen were largely abandoned by their builders. New migrants, the Frisians, migrated into the area and readopted the terpen landscape. Because the older landscape pattern was compatible with the Frisian social economy and subsistence standards; To use the terminology of cultural geographers the old system "worked". This thesis offers a discussion of why this landscape was created and readopted as a working system.