Palisade

{{Short description|Defensive structure; typically a fence or wall made from wooden stakes}}

File:St Fagans Celtic village palisade.jpg, Wales]]

A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade.

Etymology

Palisade derives from pale, from the Latin word {{Wikt-lang|la|palus|pālus}}, meaning stake, specifically when used side by side to create a wood defensive wall."palus". Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. 22 December 2009 In turn, pālus derives from the Old Italic word palūts, which may possibly derive from the Proto-Indo-European word pelh, meaning pale or gray. It may be related to the Proto-Uralic word pil'me (uncertain meaning) or the word pilwe, meaning cloud.

(see 'pale', English: Etymology 2 on Wiktionary).

Typical construction

Typical construction consisted of small or mid-sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with as little free space in between as possible. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were driven into the ground and sometimes reinforced with additional construction. The height of a palisade ranged from around a metre to as high as 3–4 m. As a defensive structure, palisades were often used in conjunction with earthworks.

Palisades were an excellent option for small forts or other hastily constructed fortifications. Since they were made of wood, they could often be quickly and easily built from readily available materials. They proved to be effective protection for short-term conflicts and were an effective deterrent against small forces. However, because they were wooden constructions they were also vulnerable to fire and siege weapons.

Often, a palisade would be constructed around a castle as a temporary wall until a permanent stone wall could be erected.

Ancient Greece and Rome

Both the ancient Greeks and Romans created palisades to protect their military camps. The Roman historian Livy describes the Greek method as being inferior to that of the Romans during the Second Macedonian War. The Greek stakes were too large to be easily carried and were spaced too far apart. This made it easy for enemies to uproot them and create a large enough gap in which to enter. In contrast, the Romans used smaller and easier to carry stakes which were placed closer together, making them more difficult to uproot.Livy 33.5

Precolumbian North America

File:Chromesun kincaid site 01.jpg, a Mississippian culture palisaded settlement in southern Illinois]]

The Iroquoian peoples, who coalesced as tribes around the Great Lakes, often defended their settlements with palisades. Within the palisades the peoples lived in communal groups in numerous longhouses, sometimes in communities as large as 2,000 people.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}} Archeological evidence of such palisades has been found at numerous 15th and 16th-century sites in both Ontario, Canada, and in New York, United States.

Many settlements of the native Mississippian culture of the Midwestern United States used palisades. A prominent example is the Cahokia Mounds site in Collinsville, Illinois. A wooden stockade with a series of watchtowers or bastions at regular intervals formed a {{convert|2|mi|km|adj=mid|-long|0|spell=in|order=flip}} enclosure around Monk's Mound and the Grand Plaza. Archaeologists found evidence of the stockade during excavation of the area and indications that it was rebuilt several times, in slightly different locations. The stockade seems to have separated Cahokia's main ceremonial precinct from other parts of the city, as well as being a defensive structure.{{cite web |url = http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/northamerica/cahokia.html |title = Archaeological Sites - Cahokia |access-date = 2008-09-16 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080916192627/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/northamerica/cahokia.html |archive-date = 2008-09-16 }}

File:Angel palisade wall and bastions HRoe 2008.jpg Site, a Mississippian site in Evansville, Indiana]]

Other examples include the Angel Mounds site in southern Indiana, Aztalan State Park in Wisconsin, the Kincaid site in Illinois, the Parkin site and the Nodena sites in northeastern Arkansas, and the Etowah site in Georgia.

Colonial America

Palisaded settlements were common in Colonial North America, for protection against indigenous peoples and wild animals. The English settlements in Jamestown, Virginia (1607), Cupids, Newfoundland (1610) and Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620) were all originally fortifications that were surrounded by palisades.

Such defensive palisades were also frequently used in New France. In addition, colonial architecture used vertical palings as the walls of houses, in what was called poteaux en terre construction. Some 18th-century houses in this style survive in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, initially settled by French colonists from the Illinois Country to the east of the Mississippi River.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

Ottoman Empire

File:Palanka Fort 2.png

A "palanka" was a type of wooden fort constructed of palisades, built by the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans during the 16th and 17th centuries. They could be erected for a variety of reasons such as protecting a strategically valuable area or a town{{Cite web|last=Burcu|first=Özgüven|title=The Palanka: A Characteristic Building Type of The Ottoman Fortification Network in Hungary|url=https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/35636735/Palanka_A_Characteristic_Building_Type-_EJOS.pdf?1416377889=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DThe_Palanka_A_Characteristic_Building_T.pdf&Expires=1603260520&Signature=W5tty-rpcCX~LHnXmTt3ijT8jFIEwIr2bt9J9Z205Emdfg0d6JYFvXBlMRY6V4cBU1U9J8HM2-cu-L4tSgafR4~hYI5k8mS4ED6NLyAIqBKLnJquBpOJjeG4yc~rw5417t7wfFb~TzFXFvwn9jG7S~US670UdPPXso8A7wLl~gEaITN6psNhPnLUhBJc8l8xmAFlT68rPVuBGR3zLa5dzB5Lp8tshIGtrVMlY9KW5Wa-y8m1sb-hcqEP7v12RYbouLQs2Mc9Y7128Y~y7DwP2EreBJ-Q~vYF4EbQOUpM-mfNnIkIIAXNDwI3FqKvcvi4Zw~kccgelQTbKeLhj28ztQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023030024/https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/35636735/Palanka_A_Characteristic_Building_Type-_EJOS.pdf?1416377889=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DThe_Palanka_A_Characteristic_Building_T.pdf&Expires=1603425583&Signature=G-Dcl5CaaVmBZe42IYsQzNzL7r1M3ydCojW~SJmVhnVJ291zw5w8jZ0n2OBOt2FNm5JZFHjx5RkHIH0SluYmVHIT~szEgO7WtJefpSahopZKWqknLnElykr24apguuRmX6fHomVYOaTfTV27uckCGbbNTdL6MYhtvMRU9S51K~neKWxb633NZg1aAlM7JxRBs7T4546iZZ6tRTCi0i53rnBzvqCMiPHtbGJ7V876cM1zZV5v5IN9qv4k0PFuoRPDybXx~DkyrEzetmZiq7LmPjYxjK--m1rWIEOmQ9O-lV4V-lBL5kYjSjUjKAfXaIz2YJWT9HYifosXyERFkAtbRQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA|archive-date=23 October 2020|access-date=21 October 2020}} Some palankas evolved into larger settlements.{{Cite web|title=Az Bilinen Bir Yerleşme Tipi Palangalar ve Erzincan Ovasında Palanga Yerleşmesi Örnekleri - PDF Free Download|trans-title=A Little-Known Settlement Type Palanga and Examples of Palanga Settlements in Erzincan Plain|url=https://docplayer.biz.tr/18808840-Az-bilinen-bir-yerlesme-tipi-palangalar-ve-erzincan-ovasinda-palanga-yerlesmesi-ornekleri.html|access-date=2020-11-16|website=docplayer.biz.tr|language=tr}}

Half-timber palisade construction

Image:Big Moose Lake NY USA Architecture.jpg in New York's Adirondack Mountains]]

In the late nineteenth century, when milled lumber was not available or practical, many Adirondack buildings were built using a palisade architecture. The walls were made of vertical half timbers; the outside, rounded half with its bark still on faced Adirondack weather, while the inside half was sanded and varnished for a finished wood look. Typically, the cracks between the vertical logs were filled with moss and sometimes covered with small sticks. Inside, the cracks were covered with narrow wooden battens. This palisade style was much more efficient to build than the traditional horizontal log cabin, since two half logs provided more surface area than one whole log and the vertical alignment meant a stronger structure for supporting loads like upper stories and roofs. It also presented a more finished look inside. Examples of this architectural style can still be found in the Adirondacks, such as around Big Moose Lake.{{Cite book|title = Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks|editor-last = Barlow|editor-first = Jane |publisher = Big Moose Lake History Project|year = 2004|isbn = 0-8156-0774-1|location = Syracuse, NY|pages = 22, 23}}

Modern uses

In areas with extremely high rates of violent crime and property theft, a common means to prevent crime is for residential houses to be protected by perimeter defenses such as ornamental iron bars, brick walls, steel palisade fences, wooden palisade fences and electrified palisade fences (railings). The City of Johannesburg promotes the use of palisade fencing over opaque, usually brick, walls, as criminals cannot hide as easily behind the fence. Its manual on safety includes guidance, such as avoiding having vegetation alongside the fence, as this allows criminals to make an unseen breach.{{cite web |url = http://www.joburg-archive.co.za/2008/pdfs/cptedbooklet.pdf |title = Manual on safety |access-date = 2010-04-19 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110720105607/http://www.joburg-archive.co.za/2008/pdfs/cptedbooklet.pdf |archive-date = 2011-07-20 }}

References

Bibliography

{{Cite book|last=Nicolle|first=David|title=Ottoman Fortifications 1300-1710|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2010}}
{{Cite book|last=Murphey|first=Rhoads|title=Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700|year=1999}}