University of Virginia Library

WARENDORF, WESTPHALIA, GERMANY

325.A EXTERIOR VIEW REDRAWN FROM WINKELMANN

325.A.1 PLAN. HOUSE 47, LEVEL A, PERIOD 4

HOUSE TYPES OF EARLY MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS. 650-800 A.D.

[after Winkelmann, 1958, 500, fig. 5]

Excavations conducted in 1951 by Wilhelm Winkelmann in Warendorf, on the south side of the Ems, brought to light traces and remains in the
soil of no fewer than 186 separate buildings, which could be accurately dated by pottery and other associated artifacts. The settlement was
rebuilt four or five times, in most cases—as the remains of charcoal and fired clay found in many postholes indicate—after houses of the previous
settlement had been destroyed by fire.

Analysis of the successive stages of the site disclosed that each inhabited level consisted of a group of four to five farmyards occupying an area
of about 984 feet (100m) square. Each farmyard held a large dwelling, and fourteen to fifteen smaller auxiliary buildings (barns, stables, sheds,
weaving houses). The variety of these service structures is shown in figs. 326.A-F.

The reason for the boat shape of House 47, a feature very common in early Scandinavian architecture, is obscure. For other examples of
longhouses of this type see below, V. 17. 3.

WARENDORF, WESTPHALIA, GERMANY

325.B EXTERIOR VIEW REDRAWN FROM WINKELMANN

Arrow indicates general direction from which exterior view above is taken

325.B.1 PLAN. HOUSE 7, LEVEL A, PERIOD 1

HOUSE TYPES OF EARLY MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS, 650-800 A.D.

[after Winkelmann, 1958, 504, fig. 8]

Plans and reconstructions on these pages are typical of the man or principal dwellings of the Warendorf settlements. By virtue of both size and
architectural distinction, as well as the presence of a hearth, they are unquestionably the dwellings of the owners of the land. They were boat-shaped
(fig. 325.A) or of rectangular plan, as above, varying in length between 45 and 95 feet (14-29m), in width between 14½ and 32 feet
(4.5-7.0m). Their roofs were supported by a perimeter of heavy posts set vertically into the ground, each buttressed from outside by a second,
lighter post rising at an angle to meet the inner post near its head. The triangulation counteracted the thrust of the roof. Wall panels between
vertical posts were daubed with clay.

The axes of these dwellings, and most of the subsidiary structures, ran from west to east. This feature, characteristic of many pre- and
protohistoric buildings in these latitudes, was apparently determined by the desire to expose only a gable wall to the prevailing (here, western)
winds. The houses were entered on their long walls through two opposing entrances in midwall, each protected by a porch. The hearth lay in the
eastern half of the house.

WARENDORF, WESTPHALIA, GERMANY

326.A

326.B

326.C

HOUSE TYPES OF EARLY MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS, 650-800 A.D.

[redrawn after Winkelmann, 1958, 504, fig. 8]

These pages give a visual account of the variety of service structures that one might have expected to find in the farmyards of Warendorf.
They have been redrawn from models made under the direction of Wilhelm Winkelmann, and are on display at the Museum für Vor- und
Frühgeschichte, Münster, under the aegis of which the excavations at Warendorf were conducted.

There were forty service buildings of rectangular plan with vertically boarded walls at Warendorf (326.A), used as barns and stables. Small
houses with hearths built in the manner of the larger dwellings presumably provided housing for serfs (326.C). Numerous small sheds with open
walls (326.B) were probably utility buildings for various kinds of storage.

WARENDORF, WESTPHALIA, GERMANY

326.D

326.E

326.F

HOUSE TYPES OF EARLY MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS, 650-800 A.D.

[redrawn after Winkelmann, 1958, 504, fig. 8]

The small, walled rectangular shed (326.D) could have served many needs from implement storage to animal shelter. A great number of small
buildings of A-frame construction (326.E) were found in the Warendorf farmyards. They were partly dug into the ground to gain standing
height, and some buildings of this type were identifiable as weaving houses by the artifacts they contained. But a building with below-ground
storage could have served equally well for winter storage of root crops.

The polygonal framework was used to store loose hay or sheaves of grain (326.F); its conical thatched roof could slide down its poles to
accommodate and adequately shelter the diminishing harvest as it was used up through the winter. The floor grid of lashed poles (326.X)
afforded aeration and drainage for the hay or grain; the plans show typical posting patterns for the structures.

326.X HAYSTACK SHELTER, left, and
DRYING PLATFORM, right

Haystacks and aeration platforms of this
type are common in Germany and the
Netherlands even today. For a fine
15th-cent. portrayal, see fig. 368.

326.G WARENDORF, WESTPHALIA, GERMANY

HOUSE TYPES OF EARLY MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT, 650-800 A.D.

[redrawn from Winkelmann, 1958, 500, 504]

Each of the buildings shown on this and the preceding pages is referred to in the Alamannic, Bajuvarian, and Salic laws discussed above
(p. 26ff), where they are designated in the following manner:

The house of a free man = DOMUS or SALA LIBERI (figs. 325A-B); the house of a serf = DOMUS SERVI (fig. 326.C); a wall-enclosed
barn = SCORIA (fig. 326.A); an unenclosed barn = SCOF (fig. 326.B); a granary = PARC (fig. 326.D); a haystack, or stacked sheaves of
wheat = MITA (fig. 326.F). For a more complete account and the etymology of these terms see above, p. 29, notes 14-18, and the chart in
Winkelmann, 1954, 210, fig. 12.