The settlement of Feddersen Wierde provides an excellent picture of Germanic life. Built on an artificial mound in marshy ground, waterlogging has preserved the lower portions of the wattle and daub houses.
Begun as a small hamlet in the 1st century BC it grew rapidly, comprising fifty houses by the 2nd century AD. These were large structures, with three internal divisions, a byre with cattle stalls, a central working area and domestic quarters with a hearth.
Associated with each house was a raised granary to store cereals. Workshops were found in parts of the settlement, making turned wooden bowls and wooden wheels.
On the eastern side of the settlement was a complex of buildings that was presumably the chief's dwelling place: this included iron and bronze workshops and a large banqueting hall. Imported Roman pottery, coins and bronzes were found, the majority associated with these lordly buildings.
Frequent shifts within the settlement document the increasingly wet conditions of the early centuries AD, which caused extensive coastal flooding and salination. The relocation of houses above the rising waters and the final abandonment of the site in the 5th century AD tell a tale familiar from much of the coastal Germanic realms at this time.
