Nieder Kostenz

Nieder Kostenz is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg, whose seat is in the like-named town.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies in the central Hunsrück in the Kyrbach valley, 2 km west of Kirchberg. The rural residential community has an area of 4.12 km², of which 1.19 km² is wooded.HistoryMunicipality’s nameThe placename Nieder Kostenz first cropped up in 1310 in the Sponheimisches Gefälleregister, a taxation register kept by the County of Sponheim. Over the years, various spellings of the name appear on the historical record:1310 – Costencia1321 – Nydder-Costentzen1361 – Nyder-Costentzen1365 – Nyddern-Costentz1399 – Nedercostencien1411 – Nydercostencien1414 – Nydern-Costenz1762 – Nieder Costentz1775 – Niedercostentz1835 – Niedercostenz1950 – Niederkostenz1976 – Nieder KostenzPrehistory and protohistoryWhen Nieder Kostenz actually arose and when the first settlers came are things that nobody can answer with any certainty. A great many archaeological finds in the area, however, grave goods such as bronze rings and belt plaques, iron lance heads, iron combat knives and coins from Roman Emperor Vespasian’s time, bear witness to Celtic-Roman settlement in the area. There have been other Roman finds, too: foundation walls from a Roman settlement, a water duct, tiles and potsherds.