Archaeologists have found a plank from an 11th-century well with detailed images of a house etched into it. The find is thought to be the only one of its kind in Western Europe and provides researchers with important information about how houses were built in the Middle Ages.
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Archaeologists uncover unique building plans on medieval wooden plank
Sally Tipper
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The plank was found at a site in Maldegem in East Flanders, when archaeologists carried out excavations ahead of a business park being built. “It’s a unique find, because it shows the very first architectural drawing of a full medieval building,” says archaeologist Evelyn Schynkel.
“Nowhere else – as far as we know – has such a drawing been found in Western Europe, and perhaps in the world.”
Until now, archaeologists have only had ground plans, and thus only had a two-dimensional view of what a building could have looked like.
“Now for the first time we have black-and-white evidence of what the building looked like, how the connections between roof trusses and walls ran, between floors, and the foundations,” says Schynkel. “It actually very closely matches how we thought buildings were built in the Middle Ages, not only in Maldegem but also elsewhere in Flanders.”
It’s a unique find, because it shows the very first architectural drawing of a full medieval building
The fact that the board came from a well is important, as wood and other organic material is easily destroyed. It can only be preserved reasonably well under the water table, because no air can get to it.
“The roof truss, the connections with the rest, the floors and foundations show that this really is a structural drawing,” says Schynkel. “It’s not a doodle. It could be from an architect, or at least from someone who was involved in building houses, perhaps to make it clear to a son or pupil: ‘this is how it should look, or this is how we are going to build it, with connections like this’.”
The plank is now undergoing a preservation process at a company in the Netherlands. Further research will follow, before it is given to the Ename heritage centre, near Oudenaarde.