Close to a terp named Fallward, near the village of Wremen in the region of Land Wursten, archaeologists uncovered a remarkable site that offers a rare glimpse into life during the Migration Period — a window into the world of the so-called ‘Old Saxons’ who once inhabited the tidal marshlands of the Wadden Sea at the mouth of the River Weser. At the Fallward terp, two burial grounds dating from the early fourth to the late fifth century were excavated, revealing spectacular wooden artifacts. These exceptional finds owe their preservation to the oxygen-poor clay soil, which created ideal conditions for organic materials to survive. Among the most striking discoveries is the so-called Thron der Marsch — the “Throne of the Marsh.” And that is just the beginning — there is much more to explore from this extraordinary site!
For several reasons, the Fallward excavations are relevant to the coastal early history of the wider region. The most important reasons are:
Firstly, the burials and artifacts date to the Migration Period. This great wandering of peoples began in this remote corner of the world as the Roman Empire started to crumble in the fourth century, and continued until the Early Middle Ages, when a new order had more or less taken shape.
Secondly, the significance of the region itself. Even during the Roman Period, this area in north-western Germany — known as the Elbe-Weser triangle — held a central position. It provided access to the hinterland via rivers and connected to Scandinavia and the British Isles by sea. This strategic role continued during the Migration Period. Numerous valuable imported objects have been recovered from the Weser estuary, including no fewer than fourteen gold bracteates originating from southern Scandinavia (Aufderhaar 2017).
Everything indicates that the people in the triangle were connected to a wider, supra-regional elite network. The marshes of the region of Land Wursten, where a series of nine terps, that is, artificial dwelling mounds, were erected from the first century AD onward, might be part of a central place. These were from south to north: Weddewarden, Imsum (formerly Dingen), Barward, Fallward, Wremen, Feddersen, Mulsum, Dorum, and Alsum. Not much later, the territory of Westergo in the northwest of the province of Friesland and the area at the mouth of the River Rhine in the province of Zuid Holland would also become such central places of power in Frisia.
There are many more terps, locally called Wurten, in the region of Land Wursten. Perhaps about 400 terps. Both dwelling mounds and refuge mounds for livestock called a Hofwurt. The region’s name Land Wursten derives from Land der Wurten (Wremer Chronik 2014).

Thirdly, the artifacts belong to a people who played a central role in the migrations across the North Sea during the Migration Period. These were the Saxons — also known as the Continental or Old Saxons — who originated specifically from this region. Beginning in the second quarter of the fourth century, they began moving westward in significant numbers. They repopulated the largely abandoned tidal marshlands once inhabited by the original Frisians (the Frisii) and the Chauci, and many eventually crossed the sea to settle in England, giving rise to the Anglo-Saxon world. Indeed, the adventus Saxonum — the ‘coming of the Saxons’ — and a demonstration not only wisdom came from the East. In this period, the maritime Old Saxons, the emerging Frisians, and the newly established Anglo-Saxons remained closely connected, both culturally and linguistically. For more in depth information about the origins of the Frisians read our blog post Have a Frisians Cocktail! A rich composition.
The Romans also referred to the Ingaevones, a collective term for the peoples living along the southern shores of the North Sea. The languages spoken by these tribes were closely related and are today grouped under the term North Sea Germanic, or Ingvaeonic. It is certain that the Saxons who lived in the tidal marshes of the Wadden Sea did not yet speak Old Saxon. Instead, they spoke an “undifferentiated West Germanic” language — likely shaped in part by the influence of Roman culture and the Latin language present in the region (Rübekeil 2022).
As we will explore later in this blog post, the grave goods also bear traces of Roman influence in their material culture (Schöne 2006). Frisians, Anglo-Saxons, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Saxons shared a common linguistic heritage within a dialect continuum. It is also doubtful that the people of Fallward thought of themselves as ‘Saxons”; the term originally referred to seaborne raiders. Only during the Saxon-Frankish wars in the Early Middle Ages did a collective identity under the name ‘Saxons’ begin to emerge (Van der Tuuk 2024).
During the Migration Period and the early stages of the Early Middle Ages, the southern North Sea coastal region should be understood as a “dynamic cultural system that makes sense in its own right and operated largely outside the homogenizing tendencies of major political centers of power” (Deckers 2017) — such as the Merovingian kingdoms. It was only from around the eighth century onward that clearly distinct languages began to emerge within this maritime zone, which stretched from England and Flanders along the coasts of the Netherlands and Germany up to southwestern Jutland.
In other words, when picturing the people living in the River Weser estuary in the fourth and fifth centuries, part of the Elbe-Weser triangle, it is like picturing the first Saxon migrants or new Frisians colonizing the nearly empty marshlands of the Old Frisians, i.e., Frisii, after the habitation hiatus of the coastal area in the Netherlands between roughly AD 325-425. In addition, some historians suggest that it was through this area from the Danish peninsula that the runic script was spread further west to Frisia and England (Düwel & Nedoma 2023).
To illustrate the dynamic maritime culture and the enduring kinship between Frisians and Saxons, the region of Land Wursten underwent a notable cultural shift during the Early Middle Ages — from Saxon to Frisian. Its inhabitants came to be known as Wurstfriesen and spoke a local variety of the Frisian language. However, by the end of the Early Modern Period, Land Wursten — along with the province of Groningen and the region of Ostfriesland — gradually transitioned linguistically from Frisian to Low Saxon, commonly known as Platt. Today, Standard German has become dominant in the region, and Platt is increasingly at risk of disappearing. Learn more about the region of Land Wursten in our blog post Joan of Arc, an inspiration for Land Wursten.








grave of Der Bootsmann and artifacts from the Wurt Fallward excavations, 4th and 5th century
The Fallward excavations
The excavations near the Fallward terp — locally referred to as a Wurt — were conducted between 1993 and 1998. Archaeologists uncovered two gravefields, comprising a total of 260 burials. Most were cremations, but around 60 were inhumations, which are responsible for the preservation of the unique (wooden) artifacts found at the site. Such mixed burial practices are characteristic of the funerary traditions along the southern North Sea coast during this period. These customs persisted until the end of the Early Middle Ages, when Christian practices gradually replaced the older pagan rites. Christianity prescribed inhumation rather than cremation, and burial without grave goods.
In his work Germania, the Roman historian and politician Tacitus writes about the Germanic tribes in the north:
Statim e somno, quem plerumque in diem extrahunt, lavantur, saepius calida, ut apud quos plurimum hiems occupat. Lauti cibum capiunt: Separatae singulis sedes et sua cuique mensa. Tum ad negotia nec minus saepe ad convivia procedunt armati. Diem noctemque continuare potando nulli probrum. Crebrae, ut inter vinolentos, rixae raro conviciis, saepius caede et vulneribus transiguntur.
Book Germania, paragraph 22, by Tacitus (AD 56-120)
Immediately after sleep, which they normally extend into the day, they wash themselves, usually with warm water because it is often winter for them. After washing, they eat: everyone has their own chair and table. Then they leave armed for business, but no less often to banquets. Drinking all day and night is not a shame for anyone. As often happens with drunkards, violent quarrels take place, rarely ending in swearing, but more often in murder and bloodshed.
Aside from the apparent social problem of alcohol abuse — which was significant enough to be noted even by the Romans — Tacitus observed that everyone had their own seat and table. In the grave of a young girl, affectionately named Frauke by the researchers, archaeologists uncovered a fully preserved stool and a small table, both featuring turned wooden legs (see image). Although Tacitus was writing two centuries earlier, these finds seem to support his account: that each person had their own chair and table.
The girl, estimated to be around three or four years old, lived during the first half of the fourth century and was buried with great care and affection in the summertime. She was laid to rest in a reused wooden trough, with hay placed over the grave. Surrounding her burial was a ditch measuring eight meters in diameter. Inside the grave, a long, slender rod made of hazel wood was ritually placed — hazel being attributed protective powers (Peek et al 2022). She wore a woollen dress fastened with fibulas, and alongside her small table and stool, several of her toys were buried with her. Among the other grave goods were ceramic vessels, a worked wooden bowl, and a small casket made of maple wood.
Another remarkable grave is that of a woman aged between 45 and 55 years — a respectable age for the time. She was adorned with various items of jewellery, including finger rings, a bronze hairpin, a silver fibula, and two tutulus fibulas, conical-shaped brooches, along with a necklace of glass beads. She also wore leather shoes. Her body was wrapped in leather and laid on an oak plank, with cushions made of reed beneath her. Among the grave goods was a wooden vessel with a finely turned, round lid, as well as two bowls and several pieces of pottery. As in the child’s grave, slender rods of hazel wood were ritually placed alongside her remains, continuing the tradition of symbolic protection.
A third noticeable grave is that of a little girl of about one and a half years old, dated to the first half of the fifth century. The girl wore woollen clothes, silver-plated fibulas, and glass beads. She was buried in an old trough, together with a hazel wood rod, and, above all, covered with flowers. Flowers included clover, red bartsia, and autumn hawkbit, among others. The grief of the family members is almost tangible.
After these female graves an interesting male grave. It is the grave of a man approximately 40 years old, dated between 405-422. He was laid on a bed of reed and buried together with a longbow made of hazel wood and several arrows. Curiously, the bow lacked the tendon, and the arrows lacked iron heads. In fact, they were never used.
Boat graves
Very special finds of the Wurt Fallward excavations are two boat graves. We all know these from Scandinavia and, of course, from the area of Sutton Hoo on the south-eastern coast of England. Often, ship burials are associated with Vikings, but it is an older and broader material culture. As is demonstrated again with these two burials.
One boat grave consists of a female buried in a dugout canoe dated to the first quarter of the fifth century. She was laid on a bed of hay, too. Grave gifts were a stool and two wooden bowls. The other, more striking boat grave was located at the border of the grave field and contained the biggest inventory of grave gifts. It is the grave of a male — who was named Heinrich by the researchers — also dated to the mid-fifth century (Schön 2006, Peek et al 2022).
The second boat grave is again a dugout canoe. An almost 4.5-meter-long canoe made of oak wood. The boat grave was covered with wooden planks placed at an upward angle, thus creating a space or chamber (see image). A very similar, modest, boat grave had been found in the area of Solleveld, in the old dunes just south of the city of The Hague in the province of Zuid Holland, which was then still Frisian territory. The Solleveld boat grave is considerably younger and dated to the first half of the seventh century. Check out our blog post “Rowing souls of the dead to Britain: the ferryman of Solleveld”.
Part of the inventory of the male’s boat grave was again a personal table made of field maple with turned wooden legs, just like in the young girl’s grave described above. Furthermore, a bowl made of sycamore and a vessel made of alder wood in the shape of a bird, perhaps a pelican (see image), were found. But there was even more stunning stuff in this second boat grave.
Know that these dugout canoes correspond with the description the Roman writer Pliny gave in his book Naturalis Historia of the vessels of the pirates living along the North Sea coast in the first century AD (Looijenga et al 2017).

An interesting discovery is a runic inscription together with an image of a Late Roman merchant ship carved on a worked bone with a hole in it, found at the mouth of the River Weser and dated probably early fifth century. It reads ᛚᛟᚲᛟᛗ:ᚺMᚱ lokom her which translates to ‘(I) look here’ or ‘behold here.’ A possible explanation of the text is that it is a charm against enemy fleet (Haywood 1991). Or was it related to piracy? The inscription illustrates the connectedness of this region with the Roman world (see further below) and with seafaring.
Throne of the Marsh
Finally, the Throne of the Marsh. A grave gift, part of the second boat grave. The throne is actually a state chair or Prunkstuhl, and is dated around the year 420. It is 65 centimeters high and dug out in one piece from an alder tree log, also called a block chair or Klotzstuhl in the German language. The chair is richly decorated with carved geometric patterns.

footstool Wurt Fallward, ca. AD 420
In addition to the block chair, a wooden footstool has been preserved from the same grave. On the side of the footstool, the following mirrored runic text is carved into the wood: ᚲᛋᚫᛗᛖᛚᛚᚫ ᛚXᚢᛋᚲᚫᚦI and reads ksamella lguskaþi. The first word must be read as scamella, from scamnum which is Vulgar Latin for ‘bench’. The second word lguskaþi literally means ‘deer/elk-damage’ or Hirschschädigung (Theune-Grosskopf & Nedoma 2006, Düwel & Nedoma 2023). The element lgu of lguskaþi must be viewed in connection with the word ksamella in front of it. With the ‘a’ transferred/shared from the end of the first word to the beginning of the second word, which was common in runic writing, you get algu. This word is similar to the Old Norwegion word elgr meaning ‘elk’. The element skapi derives from the Gothic verb skaþjan meaning ‘to damage’ (Rübekeil 2022). An alternative explanation for the element skapi is Beschaffenheit or Gestalt in the German language (Köbler 2019). In other words ‘nature’ or ‘shape’. Comparable with the modern Mid-Frisian verb skeppe meaning ‘to create/to shape’. So, ‘deer-depiction’. In conjunction with the image of the deer and a hunting dog, this explanation seems less likely, however.
The full runic inscription reads, therefore, skamell alguskaþi which translates to ‘bench of elk/deer hunter’. Indeed, The Deer Hunter. On the backside of the footstool, an image of a deer or elk being killed by a dog is depicted. Representations of hunting dogs are well-known from (Late) Roman artifacts (Schön 2006). An alternative explanation for the element skapi is Beschaffenheit or Gestalt in the German language. In other words ‘nature’ or ‘shape’ (Köbler 2019). Comparable with the modern Mid Frisian verb skeppe meaning ‘to create/to shape’. So, deer-depiction. This explanation seems less likely in conjunction with the image of a deer and an attacking dog.
The term ‘throne’ is a bit too much. We would not dare to contest the true king of the marsh, King Alfred the Great of the West Saxons. Nevertheless, a block chair must have belonged to a person of stature (Haio Zimmermann 2015). Age of the male is estimated around 50. The additional silver-plated fittings of a Roman belt which was part of the grave gifts, suggest that the man had served as a mercenary in the Roman army before, for example, stationed in northern Gaul. Being a veteran of the Roman army, he enjoyed respect and had gathered wealth (Hansen 2010, Peek et al 2022). Was his name Alguskaþi then? Or was that just the name of his loyal and watchful dog who always would lay at his feet while the elder grey-haired man sat on his chair orating ad nauseam about his past battle adventures? A barmbraccum (literally ‘lap dog’) as a hunting dog was called in the early-medieval codex Lex Frisionum. Knowing how important dogs were during the Late Iron Age until the Early Middle Ages. A bit like the thirteenth-century double tomb in Worcester Cathedral, where Sir John de Beauchamp and his wife rest their feet on two greyhounds.
By the way, the tradition of block chairs continued in remoted Scandinavia well into modern times. It was the seat of the master of the house, while the other family members had to sit on modest chairs. We did not made it up.

Since it is really the same region and era, we must mention King Finn Folcwald. He was a king of Frisia around the year 450 and is mentioned in several early medieval texts, including the epic poem Beowulf. Where his citadel was, is a big question mark to this date. But with the block chair of Folcwald (not Fallward!), we can imagine how the throne he sat on could have looked like. For more about King Finn, and how he was betrayed and killed, read our blog post Tolkien pleaded in favour of King Finn. An immortalized royal tragedy.
Note 1 — The etymology of Fallward, albeit we have not found any article on it, might be the terp or Wurt of a person named Falco, Falke, Folc, or Folko. Placenames with the suffix -wurt, -ward, -warden, -werd, -wurd, etc., dating to the Middle Ages, are typical for the Wadden Sea coastal area and are often combined with the name of the person (and kin) who once inhabited the artificial settlement mound. There are so many village names ending with -wurd, etc. in the area that you tend to think people did not have a lot of imagination and creativity back then. Or was ‘me, myself and I’ always the dominant culture? Anyways, Falco’s Wurt or Folc’s Ward might be an explanation. Coming close to Folcwald but just not.
Note 2 — The Wurt Fallward excavations are comparable to the Feddersen Wierde (another local term for ‘terp’) excavation 2.5 kilometers north of Wurt Fallward. At Feddersen Wierde, a complete terp settlement has been excavated. It dates from the same era as Wurt Fallward. One of the buildings at Fedderson Wierde has been identified as a hall or Herrenhof der Sitz, the seat of a local ruler (Peek et al 2022).
Note 3 — If interested in more history of the Lower River Weser area, check our blog post “Ich mag Ihre Pelzer- und Schustertöchter nicht!” — a kiss of death
Note 4 — Featured image: The lighthouse Der Kleine Preuße ‘the little Prussian’ at the marsh near the village of Wremem in Land Wursten.
Suggested music
- Stanley Meyers, Cavatina, theme movie The Deer Hunter (1970)
- Bob Dylan, Hazel (1973)
Further reading
- Aufderhaar, I., Between Sievern and Gudendorf. Enclosed sites in the north-western Elbe-Weser triangle and their significance in respect of society, communication and migration during the Roman Iron Age and Migration Period (2017)
- Both, F., Jausch, D. & Peters, H.G. (eds.), Archäologie Land Nedersachsen. 25 Jahre Denkmalschutzgesetz. 400.000 Jahre Geschichte; Schön, M.D., Gräber des 4. und 5. Jh.s in der Marsch der Unterweser an der Fallward bei Wremen, Ldkr. Cuxhaven (2006)
- Brooks, S., Boat-rivets in Graves in pre-Viking Kent: Reassessing Anglo-Saxon Boat-burial Traditions (2007)
- Deckers, P., Cultural Convergence in a Maritime Context. Language and material culture as parallel phenomena in the early-medieval southern North Sea region (2017)
- Düwel, K. & Nedoma, R., Runenkunde (2023)
- Green, D.H. & Siegmund, F. (eds.), The Continental Saxons. From the Migration Period to the Tenth Century. An Ethnographic Perspective; Høilund Nielson, K., Saxon Art Between Interpretation and Imitation. The Influence of Roman, Scandinavian, Frankish, and Christian Art on the Material Culture of the Continental Saxons AD 400-1000 (2003)
- Haio Zimmermann, W., Miszellen zu einer Archäologie des Wohnens (2015)
- Hansen, S., Archäologische Funde aus Deutschland (2010)
- Hunink, V. (transl.), Tacitus. In moerassen & donkere wouden. De Romeinen in Germania (2015)
- Köbler, G., Historisches Lexikon der deutschen Länder. Die deutschen Territorien vom Mittelalter biz zur Gegenwart (2019)
- Lanting, J.N. & Plicht, van der J., De 14C-chronologie van de Nederlandse pre- en protohistorie VI: Romeinse tijd en Merovingische periode, Deel A: Historische bronnen en chronologisch schema (2010)
- Looijenga, T., Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions (2003)
- Looijenga, A, Popkema, A. & Slofstra, B. (transl.), Een meelijwekkend volk. Vreemden over Friezen van de oudheid tot de kerstening (2017)
- Mees, B., The English language before England. An epigraphic account (2023)
- Nösler, D., Fibeln als Werkzeug Die Verwendung von Fibeln zur Verzierung völkerwanderungszeitlicher Keramik in Niedersachsen (2018)
- Peek, C., Hüser, A. & Meier, U.M., Die Gräber der Fallward. Ausstellung im Museum Burg Bederkesa (2022)
- Rübekeil, L., Did the Saxons really speak Saxon (in the 5th century)? (2022)
- Schulze-Forster, J., Möbel der Römischen Kaiserzeit aus Wehlitz, Lkr. Nordsachsen (2008)
- Theune-Grosskopf, B. & Nedoma, R., Ein Holzstuhl mit Runeninschrift aus dem frühmittelalterlichen Gräberfeld von Trossingen (2006)
- Tuuk, van der L., De Saksen. Middeleeuwse geschiedenis van de Lage Landen (2024)
- Wremer Chronik, Land der Wurten zwischen Weser und Elbe (2014)