"Kiesel, Cailloux, Pebble, Keien": Curious Material in the Eighth Century

The paper reports on a rather unknown building technique with round stones, pebbles, developed before 800 in several parts of Europe. The regions where this material and method can be found are separated from each other and scattered over Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain. In fact, two characteristic ways of building walls used contemporarily are the topic: not just the one transferred by imperial master builders but also a second kind, where knowledge perhaps was transported by English missionaries on the older route of St Jacob. On their way to Rome, monks would have travelled by boat to Spain, from there along the Pyrenees to France where they saw the buildings of the Christian Ostro- and Visigoths and then to Italy where the Lombardian churches built out of pebble could be seen. Further scientific research is necessary to date the “Kieskirchen” more precisely and maybe prove an expected relationship.