motte

A motte is a raised earthwork mound used in certain medieval fortifications, most notably in the motte-and-bailey castle type. The word derives from Old French motte, meaning a small mound or lump. In a typical site, the motte is a man-made hill topped by a keep, with a surrounding enclosed courtyard or bailey at its base.

The structure and layout of a motte involve piling earth to create a raised platform, often on naturally occurring ground or on a prepared mound. Typical mottes are several meters high and tens of meters in diameter, encircled by a ditch and a palisade. The summit supported a wooden keep or, in later periods, a stone keep, providing a defensible position with commanding views of the surrounding land.

Historically, mottes appeared in the early to high medieval period, especially in Normandy and England, from roughly the 10th to the 12th centuries. They allowed rapid construction of defended sites following the Norman conquest and spread across much of western Europe. Over time, many mottes were replaced by stone castles, or the fortifications were redesigned, but the earthen mounds often survived as archaeological and landscape features.

Archaeology and preservation view mottes as important traces of medieval settlement and military organization. They are often identified as grass-covered rises with associated ditches and platforms; modern surveys, including aerial photography and lidar, help interpret their size, age, and use. Many survive as protected historic monuments or within agricultural land.

In addition to its archaeological meaning, motte is a French word meaning a lump or small mound and appears in surnames and place names.