Das frühkaiserzeitliche Mausoleum von Bartringen Dossiers d'archéologie XII

The XIIth volume of the Dossiers d’archéologie du Musée national d’histoire deals with the early 1st century AD funeral monument from Bertrange which has been discovered a few years ago.

Between June 1997 and November 2003, the complete, more than six hectares sized courtyard (pars rustica) of a large Gallo-Roman villa was uncovered during the excavations of the MNHA in the “Burmicht” trading estate at Bertrange. Some of the more spectacular finds during these excavations were numerous components of a funeral pillar from the early 1st c. AD, reused in later construction phases, especially of two fortifications from the second half of the 3rd century.

The research into these extraordinary finds has been done by Gabrielle Kremer, a Vienna based archaeologist from Luxembourg, who specializes in provincial Roman sculpture and the architecture of antique funeral monuments. Her study contains not only a catalogue of all the discovered elements of the Bertrange funeral pillar but offers also its reconstruction as a richly ornamented, three-storey building of 16 meters height.

Its form, size and dating is so far unique in Northern Gaul. The Bertrange funeral monument certainly holds a key position in the early phase of Romanization of thegreater region.