Roman tomb Ochtendung

Tumulus von Ochtendung (2009)

The Roman tomb in Ochtendung , also known as the Ochtendung tumulus , is a replica of a Roman tomb at its original location in the Mayen-Koblenz district in Rhineland-Palatinate . The elaborate stone rotunda was built with tuff from the Meurin Roman mine and testified to the prosperity of the buried people.

history

The tomb dates from between 100 and 150 AD. The native Celtic population adapted more and more to the Roman way of life and thus also to the Roman cult of the dead . Above all, the Celtic upper class, who had previously attached importance to a representative grave, adopted the Roman grave custom. Even in death, the prosperity and success that a person enjoyed during their lifetime should be represented.

Around 1980 the lower stone ring of the tumulus with a diameter of 7.85 m was excavated in Ochtendung and a whole series of different graves were found. The oldest graves are urn graves, for which the tumulus was originally built. It is about an adult woman and her fetus or newborn baby, whose corpse was burned with additions in a massive box made of tuff stone. A small child of around nine months was buried in another box made of slate. At a later time, other deceased were buried here, even if the tumulus no longer existed at that time. According to the new custom, the burial took place unburned. The last burial took place between 400 and 450 AD, in a tuff sarcophagus .

Today the tumulus is a cultural monument and a station of the volcano park .

literature

• Angelika Hunold: The legacy of the volcano. A journey into the history of the earth and technology between the Eifel and the Rhine. Schnell + Steiner and publishing house of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum , Regensburg / Mainz 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-2439-8

Web links

• Vulkanpark (official website), on vulkanpark.com

Coordinates: 50 ° 20 '48.2 "  N , 7 ° 23' 50.4"  E