science

Terp

Terp is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Terp rather than just read about it. In short: 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 different languages and dialects of northern Europe.

Key takeaways

Terp belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Terp to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Terp from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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 different languages and dialects of northern Europe. Terps are found in the coastal regions of the Netherlands, particularly in the provinces of Zeeland, Friesland and Groningen, as well as in southern Denmark and northwestern Germany. Before the construction of dykes, these mounds provided protection against floodwaters that regularly disrupted daily life. They are especially common in East Frisia (Ostfriesland) and Nordfriesland in Germany. On the Halligen islands in Kreis Norfriesland, people continue to live on terps without the protection of dykes. Terps are also present in the Rhine and Meuse river plains in central Netherlands. Further examples occur in North Holland, such as Avendorp near Schagen, and in the towns of Bredene and Leffinge near Oostende in Belgium. Additional terps are located at mouth of the IJssel River, including at Kampereiland in the province of Overijssel, as well as on the former island of Schokland in the Zuiderzee, now part of the reclaimed Noordoostpolder. An old terp, known as Het Torp is also located beneath the town of Den Helder in North Holland.

Terpen in the province of Friesland In the Dutch province of Friesland, an artificial dwelling hill is called terp (plural terpen). 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. 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

See also Platform mound Tell (archaeology) Crannog Cattle mound

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.

References

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)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Terp

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Terp claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Terp before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Terp ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Terp

In research: Terp appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Terp in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Terp is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Artificial dwelling hills, Artificial hills, Artificial landforms, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Terp outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Terp in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Terp means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Terp out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Terp in simple terms?

Why does Terp matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Terp?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Terp.