Stilt house

Stilt plur. Stilt houses (also on stilts ) are wooden structures on stilts along rivers, on or in lakes, in marshes or the sea.

Stilt houses are documented prehistoric period from the 5th to the 1st millennium BC in Europe, particularly in alpine regions. In France, Slovenia, Scotland, Lithuania or Latvia can now prove stilt houses on the edges of lakes. Historical stilt houses in the Po Valley in Italy hot terramare. Today, stilt houses are common on the coasts of Southeast Asia.

Prehistoric pile dwellings

Demarcation to wet soil settlements

Part of the prehistoric lake dwellings was only on damp ground on the banks of lakes and is therefore now called wet soil settlement. They were advised only by a subsequent lake level below the water line and initially mistaken for real stilt houses have been kept ( standing in water ). With the progress of excavation activities at the circum lakes but were always more real stilt houses, which were only seasonally dry at low water levels have been found. Pile-dwelling and lake-dwellings are accepted again as terms according to the latest studies. Thus, the long-running " Pfahlbaustreit " ended at the location of these settlements.

Reasons for the pile construction

Stilt houses served, among other things the protection against predators and hostile tribes ( neighbors) or against harmful exhalations of the soil.

Method of construction

At shallows to driven piles, which consisted of whole or split trunks and were typically arranged two to two. The piles were usually not more than 15 centimeters, the length of which was according to the height of the water level usually between three and five meters. Often heavy stones were sunk at the foot of the piles, which should provide for more stability against wave impact. The houses themselves were also created from piles, covered on the outside with a layer of clay and covered with straw, bark and twigs.

More recent research assumes that such buildings not only along the banks of lakes (ie to the open waters ) existed, but also in marshy areas.

History

Settlements in pile design can be traced back to the Neolithic (New Stone Age ). Usually the excavation support numerous everyday objects of the culture to light. Stilt houses are known, for example at La Tène or on Gotland also from the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages. The size of such settlements varied widely. You can cover up to 60,000 square meters.

First archaeological findings

The first such buildings were discovered in winter 1853/54 at Lake Zurich, which at the time had an unusually low water level. It was thus sought the waters abgewinnen a larger land area and moved walls and dams. When the workers ate away at the lake bottom to fill the newly acquired areas, they encountered a dark layer with regular rows of poles and remains of a human culture. The Swiss archaeologist Ferdinand Keller she interpreted as remains of settlements and coined the term stilt houses. Europe followed the discoveries of great interest to the stilts and its inhabitants, the romanticized subsequently input into the art and popular science was and is now known as Pfahlbauromantik.

Locations ( selection)

Germany

• Lake Constance: Hornstaad - Hoernle (Neolithic ), Sipplingen (Neolithic and Bronze Age ), Bodman- Schachen ( Bronze Age ), Ludwigshafen (Neolithic and Bronze Age ), Unteruhldingen (Neolithic and Bronze Age )
• Federseemuseum: Ried Schachen ( Aich Buhler and Schussenrieder culture), Aichbühl ( Aich Buhler culture), deaf- Ried ( Schussenrieder culture), Henauhof ( Aich Buhler culture), Dullenried ( Horgen Culture ), Wasserburg Buchau ( urn field culture ), municipal Forschner ( Middle Bronze Age )
• Egelsee at Ruhestetten (Neolithic and Bronze Age )
• Löddigsee ( Jungslawisch )
• Pestenacker (Neolithic )
• Rose Island in Lake Starnberg

Austria

• Attersee: Misling (Neolithic, Mondsee culture), Weyregg (Neolithic, Mondsee culture), Anger (Neolithic, Mondsee culture), Attersee (Neolithic, Mondsee culture; Bronze Age )
• Mondsee: Mooswinkel (Neolithic, Mondsee culture), Scharfling (Neolithic, Mondsee culture ), Lake (Neolithic, Mondsee culture)
• Keutschacher See: The cabins were built 3947-3871 BC and used about 200 years at the end of the Neolithic period. Lengyel and Lasinjakultur
• Traunsee: Traunkirchen ( Bronze Age )

Switzerland

• Pfyn: ( Pfyn Culture )
• Biel: Twann (Neolithic ), Lattrigen Ried station (Neolithic ), Sutz- Lattrigen (Neolithic ), Mörigen, Lüsslingen
• Inkwilersee: Inkwil
• Burgäschisee: Burgäschi
• Constance Arbon bleach (Neolithic )
• Greifensee: Greifensee Böschen and Greifensee Storen Wildenberg ( Bronze Age )
• Murten: Muntelier (Neolithic )
• Neuchâtel La Tène ( Iron Age ), St. Blaise, Hauterive- Champréveyres, Auvernier, Cortaillod, Concise,
• Nussbaumersee: Uerschhausen Horn (Neolithic and Bronze Age )
• Pfäffikersee: Wetzikon - Robenhausen
• Zurich: Zurich -Enge - Alpenquai, Zurich - Mozart Street, Zurich - Grosser Hafner, Zurich -Kleiner Hafner (Neolithic ), miles - Rorenhaab (Neolithic ), miles - clamps ( Bronze Age ), field -mile front of the field, Horgen- Scheller, Erlenbach - angle, free Bach Hurden Ross Horn, free Bach Hurden -Seefeld, Rapperswil- Jona- pilot, Seegubel, Wädenswil front Au
• Lake Zug: train Marsh, Urnfield
• Corcelettes

France

• Chalain
• Lac de Clairvaux

Italy

• Lake Ledro Molina di Ledro ( Bronze Age )
• Lake Garda: Garda, Cisano, La Quercia, boron di Pacengo, Peschiera del Garda, Barche di Solferino, gang di Cavriana, Castellaro Lagusello, Lavagnone, Polada, Lucone, Salo
• Lago di Varese
• Fiavé ( Bronezezeit )

Slovenia

• Ljubljana Moor

Greece

• Messolonghi lagoon ( called Pylades )

Preservation of Pfahlbaufunden

Diving archaeologist Joachim Köninger, who led the Auskartierung the pile fields in preparation for the Unesco application, presented in March 2009 in Uhldingen new results of underwater archeology in the field of conservation of oak piles before. The greatest enemy of the piles is the erosion between 1989 and 2004 they amounted to up to 35 centimeters. At present one is testing whether we can stop this by gravel pads. If the strong erosion is not stopped, could disappear at Lake Constance on the authority of Schlichtherle in the next two decades, 80 of the 100 lake-dwellings. Another danger is the Seeschwankungen. The extreme drought in winter lay the remains of the lake dwellings dry in the shallow water zones. Such exceptional weather and climate situations there will be more in the future, scientists are in agreement ..

Pfahlbaumuseen

Germany

• The Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen is the oldest European Pfahlbaumuseum. On and on the water of Lake Constance shore settlements were reconstructed from various eras. The first two houses of the museum was built in 1922. In the meantime, emerged 21 other reconstructions. 2007 he had taken three other Stone Age houses on the banks, which faithfully for the television documentary Stone Age - The Experiment. Lives have been rebuilt as 5000 years ago, the ARD / SWR. The museum is affiliated with a museum with original findings and a research institute.
• In Bad Buchau (Baden- Württemberg), there is the Federseemuseum and Archeopark Federseemuseum.

Austria

• In Mondsee is the central Pfahlbaumuseum for Austria.
• In the vicinity of the district chamber of Attersee, Upper Austria, 1910 Lakeside Village was built.
• In the 9 km from Attersee antfernt town Vöcklabruck is located in the so-called "home house" the largest Pfahlbausammlung Austria.

Switzerland

• In Gletterens in the Canton of Fribourg, has been around since 1996, the reconstructed lake-dwelling Pré de Riva, the Neolithic Horgen culture.
• In Pfahlbaumuseum Lüsslingen in the canton of Bern, informed a museum about the Jura waters and lowering the lake shore settlements.
• In Schönenwerd in the Canton of Solothurn, Switzerland, has been around since 100 years the Bally Park.

Italy

• Molina di Ledro in northern Italy there is a Pfahlbaumuseum to pile dwellings on Lake Ledro.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

On 27 June 2011 111 prehistoric villages have been incorporated in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Slovenia in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Most of the included in the World Heritage Fund spaces ( 56) are located in Switzerland. From Baden- Württemberg 15 villages have been registered and Bavaria were given three find places to World Heritage status. A list of the individual sites are there in the article Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps.

Stilt houses at the present time

Even today, stilt houses are used, especially in Southeast Asia, on the Nicobar Islands, West Africa, on the Chilean island of Chiloé and in New Guinea. Standing stilt houses generally referred to as Palafitta in the water in South America. In the North Sea resort of St. Peter -Ording house built in the intertidal stilt houses restaurants and other recreational facilities; they are related to the other places (such as on the Baltic Sea ) to place piers.

Others

One theory is the name of Venezuela is that as Amerigo Vespucci explored the Bay of Maracaibo, reminded him of the standing water in the lake dwellings of the natives of his home city of Venice and the region then called "Little Venice " (Venezuela ) was called. The descriptive term " stilt houses " is a registered trademark with the German Patent and Trademark Office since June 4, 2004. Owner of the word mark " stilt houses " with registration number 30355957 of the association for Stilt and History eV