The Dam (4/8)
The Dam
Medieval Dam.
Further upstream no interesting finds were detected. But I made an interesting discovery. The creek branched and the two affluents were once hold back by dams. When more water was needed, for example when a furnace was started, the gates were opened. Today the wooden gates are gone and just a gap in the dam is visible where they once stood.
Upstream of the southern dam a reservoir of some 10 m square was still visible. I had seen such a dam-reservoir combination before at a different place located upstream of a water mill.
The picture of the dam was made from within the former reservoir, now dried up. The gap with the former wooden gate is in the centre while trees have grown on the left half of the dam.
Dam Gap Detail
Dam Gap Detail.
The former dams did not yield any finds. The former reservoir was used by farmers as a dump for all sorts of trash including metal. It was virtually unsearchable. When I searched the mentioned other reservoir upstream the water mill nothing was found. These structures are erected once and require apparently little maintenance so maybe a broken shovel can be expected but nothing more.
(C) Thorsten Straub www.metal-detecting.de 2006-2019.