Beltheim - Villa Rustica

Hidden in the Frankweil Forest near Beltheim is a Roman estate.
Ramparts and ditches, as well as fragments of Roman brick and pottery, very obviously denote a place of settlement. However, archaeological excavations have not yet been carried out.
Normally, a Roman estate consisted of one main and several ancillary buildings. Stables, and sometimes a smithy, stores, and a mill surrounded the main building. A stonewall around the estate provided security, prevented domestic animals from getting loose and kept chickens and other animals protected from unwelcome thieves.
The residential buildings would often have an ornate façade, elevated corner buildings – so called risalites – and a colonnade. The buildings were plastered both inside and outside, the windows glazed and the roofs tiled.  The wealth of the owner, or tenant, of the estate was displayed in the architecture and its luxurious interior décor.
This was especially evident in the separate bath buildings, which, even in the countryside, were a fixed feature.
The word AGER referred to the fields and meadows, which belonged to an estate, a term that lingers on in our word “acre”.
Wheat, alongside old types of grains such as barley and spelt, was increasingly grown in Roman times.
The main duty of the estates was the production of foodstuffs for the troops and the population of towns and fort settlements. One legion, with its retinue – around the time of Christ’s birth approximately 6000 men – needed about 5 tons of corn per day.
Correspondingly, to supply the 25 to 50,000 inhabitants of the Roman town Trier about 20 to 25 tons of corn were needed every day.
An important Roman innovation in agriculture was the introduction of market gardening. Vegetables and certain fruit from the Southern regions, such as peach and cherry trees, were successfully grown in the Northern provinces.
Pulses such as beans, peas and lentils were among the staple foods and grown on a large scale. In the vegetable and herb gardens carrots, beets, field cabbage and lamb’s lettuce were planted.
Through systematic breeding and improved husbandry cattle were both stronger and larger than those of the Celtic times.  For the Roman population they were the main source of meat. Teams of oxen  were used to work the fields and pull heavy loads.
The breeding of pigs was of great importance to the estates. In the warm seasons the pigs would run wild in the woods and feed on leaves, young branches and acorns.
Poultry and eggs were also very popular on the Roman menu.
The main criterion for the location of the Villa rustica in the Frankweil Forest would probably have been the combination of good soil with nearby transport and communication routes.
The roads and paths went over the mountain ridges, down into the valleys and to the rivers. The watercourses served as transportation routes to the markets.
The carters’ path, which connected Karden on the Moselle with St.Goar on the Rhine, lead through the Frankweil Forest.
Tumuli and grave gardens along the route indicate a Roman, maybe even a prehistoric origin of the carters’ path; tomb fields were usually laid out close to important transportation routes.

[Martin Thoma]