A migration period settlement located by the River Ems in Westphalia, West Germany. The excavations represent a palimpsest of individual phases which overlie each other, spanning the latter part of the 7th,8th and early 9th centuries. The excavations were carried out in the 1950s and uncovered a remarkable range of building types laid out in nucleated groups, each centred upon one long hall. Ilie halls themselves are either rectangular in shape or bow-sided; the bow-sided type has no interior roof supports, but a curved ridge pole and buttresses around the outside. The other buildings in a typical unit consist of bams and outhouses, stables, octagonal- and hexagonalshaped silos, haystacks, and a variety of sunken huts that were used as workshops. These distinct classes of building make it possible to speculate about the social divisions within the settlement.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied