Beltheim, Frankweil Forest (Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis)

In the Frankweil Forest near Beltheim there are a remarkable amount of well-preserved tumuli and cemeteries.
One particularly impressive group includes 12 tumuli, among them three conspicuously large barrows with diameters ranging from 27 to 34 m. 
In 2002 a survey took place in one of these barrows. It was found that the central burial space had been destroyed by looters.  However, there was a second burial in the barrow; cremated remains in a ceramic pot from the 1st century A.D. The tumulus itself is much older and was probably laid out in Celtic times.
In addition to the Roman graves of the Frankweil Forest there are ‘grave gardens’, which border a burial place.
Three grave gardens are in an exceptionally good state of preservation. In their centres respectively stands a tumulus. Altogether, the small necropolis includes seven big tumuli. 
The biggest of these tumuli, called, in common parlance, ‘Beer Hill’, was unearthed in the early 20th century. Laid open, in the centre of the tumulus, was a chamber constructed of quartzite. It contained several clay pots of Roman origin and an urn, which held cremated remains.  Within the other grave gardens and tumuli are very probably similar burial chambers and relics. Presumably it was here that the residents of the nearby Roman estate buried their dead.
The grave gardens would be kept open for a long time; only through erosion did a gradual backfill occur. Sometimes, on the excavation ground fragments of larger pots are found. These used to contain the food and drink offered in honour of the dead.
As a rule the deceased would be burned, along with his or her funeral gifts, on a pyre in the vicinity of the grave and through this cremation process the dead would be purified. The cremated remains would be picked from the funeral pyre and deposited in an urn.
After close examination of partially burnt bones conclusions may be drawn as to the age and sex of the dead and the diet these people lived on.
Observations made elsewhere show that up to ten graves were set within one grave garden and most of these were occupied multiple times, probably by members of the same family.
It was a Mediterranean custom to furnish the dead with either a lamp or a coin. With the coin the deceased would be able to pay the ferryman Charon who – according to an ancient myth – took the dead to the other side of the Styx, the river, which divided the living in the upper world from the dead in the underworld.

[Martin Thoma]