Palisade church

A palisade church often had its walls set fully or partly in gravel and therefore they can be detected in archaeological surveys.

The palisade church construction itself consisted, in its simplest form, of posts set closely together into a trench in the earth, with the roof resting directly on top of the logs.

Later the logs were split in two halves, with the flat side facing into the enclosed room.

To prevent rapid deterioration, the logs or stave-planks were charred at the lower end and impregnated with pine-tar.

For a long time it was assumed that this style of church building had disappeared before the year 1000, yet later research has shown it to be quite common as late as the 13th century.