At the beginning of the last century a huge amount of Roman building material surfaced in the forests around the village of Overasselt. Archaeologists decided to research the area. In 1930 they exposed the traces of a Roman mansion. Seventy years later a large burial mound or tumulus was discovered just 350 metres from the site, probably the mansion owner’s final resting place.
Oak forest
The excavation in 1930 was undertaken by the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. The archaeologists had a hard time working their way through the roots of the oak forest. The artefacts they found where hard to identify. However, they were able to distinguish three buildings. The middle one was the largest, measuring 32 x 10 metres. The luxurious main building had a basement and at least two rooms with underfloor heating. South of the mansion was a separate bathhouse.
Tumulus
The mansion was situated on a plateau overlooking a valley. This valley is still discernible. In the forest at the opposite side of the valley an archaeologist found large chunks of tuff. Because of this, one of the small hills in the forest could be identified as a tumulus (burial mound). This tumulus had a circumference of 15 metres. This type of Roman tumulus is quite rare in the Netherlands. It shows that the owner of the mansion was a wealthy man. He probably had ties with the nearest large settlement, Ulpia Noviomagus, also known as Nijmegen.
Farm
The luxurious main building and the tumulus were part of a vast agricultural business of a type that was quite common in the river area. About 200 metres south was the farm building that came with it. But we don’t know much more than that. The location is surprising, because in Roman times it was quite far away from connecting roads and waterways. And the river dunes were just as infertile back then as they are now. Maybe the actual farmland was based on river clay further south, or maybe the owner bred horses. If we want to learn more, additional research needs to be done. Unfortunately the mansion and tumulus are both on private property and therefore not accessible.
