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A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope. It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line , a border / separation barrier for navigation, good drainage, industry, or other purposes.
Chemin de ronde: a pathway running along the berm, behind the faussebraye or Carnot wall. [2] Cunette: a narrow channel that runs along the floor of the ditch for drainage purposes. Bartardeau: a type of masonry dam across a ditch that is part wet and part dry. [3] Counterscarp: the outer slope or wall of the ditch (furthest from the fort).
These medieval land terms include the following: a burgage , a plot of land rented from a lord or king a hide : the hide, from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning "family", was, in the early medieval period, a land-holding that was considered sufficient to support a family.
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with towers, bastions and gates for access to the city. [1]
Earth ditch and rampart defences on the Ipf near Bopfingen, Germany Reconstructed pfostenschlitzmauer of the oppidum at Finsterlohr, Creglingen, Germany. The composition and design of ramparts varied from the simple mounds of earth and stone, known as dump ramparts, to more complex earth and timber defences (box ramparts and timberlaced ramparts), as well as ramparts with stone revetments. [2]
In medieval England and Wales a licence to crenellate granted the holder permission to fortify their property. Such licences were granted by the king, and by the rulers of the counties palatine within their jurisdictions, e.g. by the Bishops of Durham and the Earls of Chester and after 1351 by the Dukes of Lancaster.
In medieval castles, the area surrounded by a curtain wall, with or without towers, is known as the bailey. [4] The outermost walls with their integrated bastions and wall towers together make up the enceinte or main defensive line enclosing the site.
Section and plan of a bell barrow with a narrow berm A bell barrow from Colt Hoare's introduction to The Ancient History of Wiltshire. In the United Kingdom, they take the form of a circular mound or mounds within a circular ditch, the mounds being separated from the ditch and each other by a berm. There is sometimes present an additional bank ...