3.3 Feddersen Wierde
The well-known terp settlement of Feddersen Wierde is located at a distance of over 150 km to the east of Ezinge and Midlaren-De Bloemert on the coast of Niedersachsen, in what might be called the Saxon home area. That makes it in an interesting settlement for comparison. The pottery from the Feddersen Wierde has fully been published (Schmid 2006). Although it was not collected per feature but per grid square of 5 x 5 m, the results are presented in a form that makes them comparable to the results from Ezinge and Midlaren-De Bloemert.
The Feddersen Wierde was fully excavated between 1955 and 1963 (Haarnagel 1979). It was a large settlement, with c. ten simultaneous farmhouses in the 1st century AD to over 25 farmhouses in the 3rd century AD. Habitation started in the 1st century BC; it ended in the course of the 5th century AD. The number of potsherds is not mentioned by Schmid, but from the numbers mentioned in his figures, a number of at least 12000 pottery individuals from the entire habitation period can be calculated.