An artificial mound or hillock, the site of a prehistoric village, and still in many cases occupied by a village or church, in parts of Friesland below sea-level or liable to inundation. Also applied to similar mounds outside Friesland itself. Also attrib.
These terpen, like the Italian terremare or terramares, have in modern times been excavated for the sake of the fertilizing soil which they yield, and more recently for the prehistoric remains found in them; the name has thus passed into archæological use.