Hundheim

The status symbol of the Celtic elite was the two-wheeled chariot. Within a group of 9 tumuli 2 chariot burials were discovered and excavated in 1937.
As a result of farm workings one of the graves was in a very poor condition, the barrow itself only 25 cm high. In the centre of the barrow, and only slightly sunk into the ground was a stone chamber, which measuring 3.5m in length. The stones enclosed a wooden burial chamber, within which a two-wheeled chariot had been placed.
The wooden parts of the chariot were long since decayed but those parts made of iron, which included the wheel rims, had survived and allowed for a reconstruction of the chariot.
In the acidic soil the skeleton of the deceased had completely dissolved.
In the centre of the cavity a bucket-shaped bronze vessel – a so-called Situla – was found. It had been formed and riveted from a single sheet of bronze and is thought to have been used to serve alcoholic drinks and to have come from Etruscan workshops in upper Italy. The traditional clothing of the deceased included an iron pin used to hold fast a robe reduced to a height of 20 cms.
A rectangular burial chamber 2,8m long was found in the centre of the barrow. An outer wall of stone protected the wooden burial chamber,
which was intended to hold the chariot. The body of the dead had been cremated; the remains carefully removed from the funeral pyre and laid in the wooden burial chamber.
Beside the chariot the burial gifts of this man included a bronze bracelet, three iron spearheads and one lance head.
Thanks to the presence of these items both male burials can be dated to between 500 and 450 B.C.
The Hundheim chariots offer the earliest proof of the presence of these lightweight two-wheeled carriages in the Hunsruck region. This burial offering honoured the deceased beyond the grave. Over several centuries, and up to the last decades B.C., the chariot gift was an important ritual within the Celtic ruling class.
The bronze vessel indicates the far-reaching trade connections that existet between the early Celts in the Hunsrück and the Etruscans in northern Italy.
The Etruscans controlled the main Alpine passes from the Po-plain of upper Italy. In order to produce their bronze goods the Etruscan workshops required large amounts of tin and copper.  Tin was to be found in Brittany and southern England.
In this direction led the important trade route – over the alpine passes and along the Rhine towards northern France. On this trade route in the Middle-Rhine and Hunsrück area a small group of successful patriarchs or chiefs had established  themselves and  publicly demonstrated  their higher social position through armaments and feasting and funeral rites.
The numerous Iron Age tumuli fields provide evidence of the pre-historic path across the Hunsruck ridge.  In Roman times this familiar old track had been extensively adopted.
Thus, during an archaeological exploration, not far from the chariot graves of Hundheim, a Roman road was discovered.
The Roman road and, presumably the pre-historic track also, led through the Roman settlement of Wederath/Belginum along a grave field larger than the tumuli fields up  on the Halster  Heights. 
To a large extent the Hunsrück mountain high road still follows the ancient path lined by graves and settlements and on which the  chariots of the Celtic ruling class once ran.

[Martin Thoma]