Tofting

Tofting was a village warft in Schleswig-Holstein’s North Frisian district, built on a raised mound beside an old loop of the Eider. Excavations between 1949 and 1953 by Albert Bantelmann uncovered the first timber houses from the 1st and 2nd centuries. The mound was gradually raised with layers of dung and clay until it stood about 1.40 metres above sea level. Cattle grazed the salt meadows around the settlement while higher ground allowed summer grain to be grown. Fragments of Roman Terra Sigillata show the villagers traded with distant markets. The warft’s name appears in writing from 1535, though it probably began as the North Frisian word Toftum meaning ‘house plots’. The later change to Tofting mirrors other place names like Garding and Ording. Two cat skeletons found during the dig are the oldest known in Schleswig-Holstein. Archaeologists also noted strong links with Ingwäon settlements near the Elbe estuary, where the Chauken lived at the same time. Today the site lies north of Tönning within the parish of Oldenswort. Visitors walk the grassy mound and see the low earthworks that mark the former house plots. The surrounding salt marshes stretch to the horizon, giving a sense of the wide grazing land used by the early farmers. Interpretive posts explain how the mound was built up over centuries. A quiet lane leads to the warft, offering a view across the flat marshland towards the Eider’s old channel.