Elp culture

The Elp culture ( 1100 to 850 BC ) is a regional group of European Tumulus Bronze Age, located west of the Weser, north of the mountain range and developed in the Northeast and Middle Low Lands. Name of locality is obtainable from the village of Elp (municipality Midden- Drenthe) between Assen and Emmen in the Netherlands, where a settlement of this culture period were excavated for the first time.

Characteristics

The Elp culture is characterized by its typical large three-aisled farmhouse. These are generally more than 25 feet long and about 6 feet wide. The archaeologist Harm Tjalling Waterbolk calculated that in a residential barn house type Elp, some even fit up to 26 30 cattle. The stall of the houses are usually recognizable by the dense stand set and was located in the eastern part of the building. The narrow entrances were located in the narrow sides of the houses or in the longitudinal wall between living and stable part. Since the residential wing was equal to or longer than the stable part, it is assumed that the houses were inhabited by large families. In the name giver locality more than twelve houses were detected within a hectare. These were built over a period of 700 years. It is therefore believed that the farms were inhabited thirty to forty years, and were then left to build elsewhere in the immediate vicinity of the old farmstead a new building.

Some floor plans from Elp or Emmerhout have an extreme length of more than 60 meters. These were interpreted by Waterbolk as a building with a central function.

Furthermore, the culture is characterized by its burial mounds.

Swell

• Archaeological Culture ( Bronze Age )
• Archaeological Culture ( Europe)
• History ( Ostfriesland)
• Culture ( Ostfriesland)