Turves and trusses: reconstructing an early medieval building tradition in the northern Netherlands
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2016-10-26

Archaeological reconstructions of excavated buildings are becoming a common feature in many countries throughout Europe and beyond. The value of such structures for communicating ideas about past life or even a more sustainable modern lifestyle is borne out by the fact that many have been built in open air museums or open (freely accessible) landscape settings. In professional archaeological reports too, reconstructions, or reconstruction draw ings to be precise, help to convey the archaeological message to a larger audience. But what exactly is this message? And how do we ascertain its academic quality?
This paper is not intended to simply repeat best practices in making reconstructions based on archaeologically excavated building remains; these points have been outlined and discussed on numerous occasions before. Instead, the question is raised why these practices seem so rarely to be adhered to in practice. Perhaps museums prioritise differently than academic building researchers? Perhaps academic researchers lack sufficient knowledge and experience regarding ancient building techniques? And from this: should we not distinguish more clearly between different kinds of reconstructions, each aimed at different kinds of public? These are and may remain rhetorical questions; the concern of this paper is with demonstrating that ‘playing by the rules’ will indeed increase our understanding of past architecture.
Recent settlement research in the northern Netherlands has given a central role to a structural approach in studying previously excavated house-plans. The primary aim of the project was to establish how the region’s early medieval turf-walled buildings were constructed and how their architectural development can inform us about greater societal changes. However, generally accepted ideas on the limitations of turf construction and quality requirements for structural timbers were at first found not to tally with the details of the often well-preserved turf house fragments. A more systematic approach of the data was deemed necessary for outlining and explaining the typology, use, technique, design and context of these buildings.
It will be demonstrated that early medieval turf and timber buildings in the north of the Netherlands were both of a fundamentally different design than previous, less encompassing investigations have suggested. A new series of reconstruction models was established on the basis of in-depth preparatory research, different assumptions (e.g. on stability requirements), new ethnographic analogies, reasonable chronological depth and a greater geographical range. The resultant model for an ‘average’ early medieval farm building is now characterised, in short, by fully stable arch-shaped trusses rather than the well-known but instable (non-braced) rectangular trusses. In the treeless salt-marsh area along the coast, thick clay turf walls served as loadbearing elements, whereas common belief would generally not allow for such a structurally demanding use of turf blocks. It is hoped that this case study will help raise awareness of the possibility that our views on past architecture may still be subject to radical new interpretations, which is something to bear in mind for future visualisations and reconstructions, regardless of their purpose being educational, generally informative or academic.

Author - M.A. Postma, Dani l, Groningen Institute of Archaeology, Lelystad, Netherlands (Presenting author)