Archaeologists have discovered an unusual circular stone tomb in southern Germany. This large tomb, which dates back to the Roman Empire, is completely empty and may have been built as a monument to honor someone buried elsewhere.
“The grave was both a place of mourning and an expression of social status,” Matthias Pfeil, curatorial director of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Conservation, said in a translated statement. “We did not expect to find a burial monument of this age and size here.”
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According to the Bavarian State Monument Protection Agency, the circular tomb was built next to a Roman road. The shape and arrangement of the carved stones suggest that the tomb dates from the Roman period, when the area was part of the province of Raetia.
However, while similar Roman tombs have been discovered in central Europe and Italy, the discovery is “highly unusual” and “extremely rare” in Germany, the Bavarian Monument Conservation Authority said in a statement. The burial mounds found in this area are usually of much older date.
Furthermore, the Wolkertshofen tomb is unusual in that no bones or grave goods were found inside. Combined with the tomb’s proximity to Roman roads and the Roman countryside, this may mean that the tomb was a cenotaph, a symbolic tomb commemorating a person buried elsewhere.
“Ancient tomb [burial mound] “The location was located right on an important traffic route in Rome, so the family created a widely visible monument to the deceased,” Pfeil said.
Further study of the tomb and its surroundings will help experts better understand Roman life in Bavaria, the statement said.
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