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20.
Jørn Petersen, Højer: mundtlig information, 2013.
21.
Tenna R. Kristensen
: Arkæologiske udgravninger langs
den sønderjyske vestkyst
, Haderslev Museum, 2002.
22.
Manfred Vollmer; M. Guldberg; M. Maluck; D. Mar-
rewijk; G. Schlicksbier:
Landscape and Cultural Heritage
in the Wadden Sea Region – Project Report,
Wadden Sea
Ecosystem No.12, CWSS, 2001, p. 130.
Summary
The burning of the hut at Jordsand in September 1999 be-
came the ritual symbol that it no longer existed as a Wadden
Sea island.
The historic maps indicate that Jordsand must have been
of considerable size in the 1500-1700s – although details of
the precise shape and extent of land areas on the maps of that
period cannot be taken as specified. Blaeus’ 1608 nautical
chart indicates Rømø only with a church tower and a mill(?)
on a silhouette of the dunes. This does not mean that Rømø
had no settlements at the time. The chart only specifies the
visible elements of significance for navigation at sea. The
two houses at Jordsand, on the other hand, were visible on
the flat marsh and could therefore be used for navigation.
The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters’ 1805
map of the western part of Schleswig was the first map of
the southern part of the DanishWadden Sea coast where it is
possible to be more definite about the sizes of land areas and
the details of the coastline. At this time the island’s area was
about 40 hectares. Since then it has decreased considerably:
Jordsand disappeared from the map of the world in less than
200 years.
It appears that there have been a settlement on Jordsand
already in the 1200s. Valdemar Sejr’s 1231 cadastre notes
Jordsand as “Hjortsand House”, which has been interpret-
ed as the king’s hunting residence on the island – on deer
and other game. But when was Jordsand inhabited all year
round, and when was the year-round habitation replaced by
more seasonal stays? Nautical charts of the 1500-1600s in-
dicate that there were two estates on Jordsand at the time.
Records in the late 1600s indicate that permanent residence
on Jordsand ceased around 1695, and that from this date
the island was only used for grazing and harvesting hay in
the summer half-year. More than 200 years later (in 1897),
the then owners applied to the Prussian authorities to pay
for the re-erection of a brick shepherd’s house with associa-
ted wharf which had been destroyed in a storm surge a year
and a half earlier – but it was refused. Up to summer 1923
– when summer grazing and hay harvesting ceased com-
pletely, Jordsand was “under surveillance” from a wooden
hut which was built around 1900.
In 1969 and 1975, tangible evidences were obtained that
Jordsand had been inhabited when two brick wells were
discovered. A marine clay ring was found in 1978 (another
remnant of a well?) The most recent evidence of habita-
tion is from 1982, when a profile of cut-out clay blocks
was found. All these remnants derive from traditional ele-
ments in buildings on islands subject to flooding. It was,
however, surprising that the excavation of the remains of
the “1969 well” (in 1979) revealed that it was not a water
cistern – in contrast to the wells on the North Frisian Hal-
ligen. This well rested on an open pine frame. The ques-
tion is: was/were the well(s) artesian well(s) fed by fresh
groundwater – at an accessible depth – from sand and gravel
layers from the ca. 15 metre-high Hjerpsted Bakkeø – like
the conditions west of the geest at the town of Bredsted
in North Friesland? Or must the explanation be sought in
the immediate conditions, that the lighter fresh rainwater
simply overlaid the entering, heavier salt water in the wells
on Jordsand? And that their capacity was sufficient to fill
– or supplement – the needs for fresh water during the sum-
mer stays on Jordsand?
This possibility could be supported by Haderslev Mu-
seum’s investigations of the dwelling mounds in Rudbøl in
2002, where eight wells were found, and it was concluded
that they may have been placed there to save drinking water
from the roofs. The lower groundwater quality in these wells
could then be usable for other purposes in the household.
The Jordsand wells’ construction and materials indicate
that they could be from the 1800s.
Jordsand 1996. Foto: Svend Tougaard.
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