Pl. terpen (also erron. used as sing.). [WFris. terp village mound, pl. terpen, = EFris. terp (Saterland), NFris. têrp (Sylt), sarp (Amrum) village:—OFris. therp, umlaut variant of OFris. thorp village: cf. THORP.] An artificial mound or hillock, the site of a prehistoric village, and still in many cases occupied by a village or church, in parts of Friesland below sea-level or liable to inundation. Also attrib.
These terpen, like the Italian terremare or terramares, have in modern times been excavated for the sake of the fertilizing soil which they yield, and more recently for the prehistoric remains found in them; the name has thus passed into archæological use.
[1838. Penny Cycl., X. 481/1. The whole land is flat … nor is there an eminence throughout it excepting some mounds, here called ‘terpen,’ on which the antient Frisians were accustomed to take refuge in seasons of marine inundations.]
1866. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Eng., II. I. 153. On the seaside little hillocks, 13 feet to 191/2 feet high, may be observed at short distances: they are called Terpens. These hillocks were formed by the hand of man; and when opened, their contents prove that they belong to an ante-historical epoch.
1889. Scott. Leader, 15 Jan., 7/1. An account of a visit to a terp mound at Aalzum in North Friesland … by Dr. Robert Munro. Ibid. The general character of the antiquities found is that of the Iron Age. In the museum at Leewarden there are two rooms devoted exclusively to the antiquities from the terpen mounds.
1899. Munro, Prehist. Scotl., x. 401. Double-edged combs like those from the Terp-mounds in Holland. Ibid., xi. 436. The terpen are largely excavated on account of their rich ammoniacal deposits.
