During land consolidation work on the Musikantenbuckel vineyard in autumn 2006, four late Roman stone sarcophagi were found. Two of them are housed in a freely accessible temple-like protective structure...
Thanks to such typical late Roman stone sarcophagi, which were found in autumn 2006 during land consolidation work on the Musikantenhump, Freinsheim also received its Roman monument. Here the excavator found some sarcophagusless tombs from the Constantinian period (early 4th century) and four of these stone chests carved in one piece; The archaeologists from the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage (the current name) took two of them to Speyer, and since October 2009 one has been under a specially erected temple-like protective structure not far from the site. The fourth was broken, but was also housed in the protective building after its restoration. The design of the temple was debated for a while, and finally a flat roof with an antique triangular gable was built, supported by two Doric columns.
The Romans of classical antiquity cremated their dead and buried the remains in urns, but in late antiquity burial became more and more widespread, which was also the burial method of Christianity (approved by Emperor Constantine the Great in 313, state religion since 381). As a rule, the cemeteries were a few hundred meters away from the settlements along the country roads. The sarcophagi from the Musikantenbuckel point to a nearby settlement, possibly a country estate, which, however, as finds elsewhere have shown, may have had much more modest dimensions than that on the Weilberg.
Fascinating, if not unique, is what the sarcophagi contained as burial objects, partly unbroken: in addition to ceramics, beautiful, partly colored glass bottles and bowls, no more than sophisticated crockery, but impressive if only because three glasses were undamaged in the ground for 1700 years have survived.