Propylaeum

It is not only in Westphalia that the scientific study of rural building remains from the Middle Ages is a desideratum of archaeological and building history research. Almost all of the buildings are made of wood, which is now decayed and therefore much more difficult to examine than the surviving monumental witnesses of medieval architecture made of stone.
Angelika Speckmann has now closed this gap and, for her up-to-date and detailed evaluation, has compiled over 300 ground plan findings from the 6th to the 13th century. She prepared them in a uniform manner, analysed them and thus made them comparable and usable for a quick overview.
A glossary with a definition of all technical terms used makes the volume a helpful reference work. Excursuses on the craftsmen who built the houses, on reconstructions and on the durability of the various buildings complete the publication.
This thesis was accepted as a dissertation at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in 2007.