Weiden Roman Burial Chamber
About
A wealthy family from Roman Colonia Agrippina built this barrel-vaulted burial chamber beside the road to Belgica, one of the best-preserved tombs of its kind north of the Alps. Farm workers rediscovered it by accident in 1843 while digging foundations, still holding grave goods after seventeen centuries underground. It served the family from the middle of the second century through the fourth. Construction dates to roughly 150 CE, more than three decades after Trajan's death, so it did not yet exist at the 117 CE mark.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →