An extraordinary Roman votive monument was discovered during recent excavations by the State Office for Monument Preservation (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, LAD) in the Stuttgart Regional Council and the Förderverein Römisches Freilichtmuseum Hechingen-Stein e.V. (Friends of the Roman Open-Air Museum Hechingen-Stein) on the grounds of the open-air museum. So far, over 100 fragments with various depictions from the ancient pantheon have been recovered. The find was presented to the public for the first time on Thursday, October 24, 2024.

“The monument must originally have consisted of several stone blocks placed on top of each other,’ archaeologist Dr Klaus Kortüm of the LAD reported at the public presentation in the open-air museum. “The blocks are decorated with reliefs on all sides, showing ancient gods and figures from the associated legends. In post-Roman times, the monument was broken up into large and small pieces and scattered. Only parts of the figures can be seen on them, and these can often only be identified using better-preserved parallels,” Kortüm said.

The recovered pieces form only a fraction of the original monument. However, they cannot be reassembled in their original form. Archaeologists are therefore using small-scale 3D printer replicas. These are to be assembled to create as a true-to-scale model. It is planned to permanently exhibit the original fragments and the completed model in the open-air museum, Kortüm said.

According to the archaeologist, comparable god pillars have rarely been found in the Roman border provinces on the Rhine and Danube. The Hechingen god pillar must have been quite large in comparison. But who was the apparently high-ranking owner of the monument? Who dedicated it and on what occasion?

The discovery of the monument sheds significant light on the large Roman villa complex of Hechingen-Stein, which has not yet revealed all its secrets.

Background information

The main building of the Roman complex dating from the 2nd and 3rd century AD was excavated between 1978 and 1981 by the former Tübingen branch of the State Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments. The following year, the open-air museum was established at the site. Since 1992 excavations in Hechingen-Stein have been ongoing. For further information, visit www.roemischesfreilichtmuseum.de.