Sconces and moths in the Schinveld forests

Initially, the enclosed and walled, rectangular areas were considered 'redoubts' and were also called that by the locals. There was no living on redoubts.
They were fortified places, which had been excavated by an excavated
A ditch and a wall plus a fence of pallisads or a woven hedge on the inside of the ditch were secured. Its location in wetlands increased protection.
The redoubts were the first phase in the development of the 'motte'. There is mention of a motte in a two-part system with an artificially raised mound and forecourt.
Redoubts were also made in later periods, such as the farmers' redoubts in the Eighty Years' War. In the Carolingian period between 900 and 1000, when the first landed gentry emerged, the construction of 'moated sites' began.
Draining the
Woonerp was the most important function of the canal in an area with high water levels. Sometimes the moat contributed to the status of the inhabitant, who somewhat imitated the higher nobility.
In England there are concentrations of 'moated sites' in wet areas from the beginning of the thirteenth century to the middle of the fourteenth century. However, Schinveld's 'moated sites' are a unique exception.
Soil drilling carried out in May 2008 indicates a short period of occupation at the end of the late Middle Ages and the transition to the modern era (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries).
Among the traces that are still clearly visible, a
Older landscapes are hidden, as evidenced by pottery from 1100 to 1250, prehistoric flint tools, grinding stones and urn fields, which have been found in the area, and the question remains what role the locations of the 'moated sites' played in this.
For centuries, the enclosed sites led a dormant existence and were only known to a few. When the municipality of Onderbanken started in 2005 with the realization of the Roode Beek-Rodebach nature park, the time was ripe to also
historical route.
Visual artist Jos van Wunnik did the preparatory work. In 2006, as part of an archaeology project of the IKL foundation, the Vereniging Natuur Monumenten (Society for the Preservation of Nature in the Netherlands) started to
fencing of the first earthen monuments, to protect against the Scottish Highlanders.
Where necessary, they were cleared of vegetation so that the relief became more visible and was preserved for the future.

Tourist Board South Limburg (Visit Zuid-Limburg)