Magdeburg, Germany

Archaeometric investigations on the marble cover slab of Otto the Great's tomb in Magdeburg Cathedral

Otto I, the Great, from the Liudolfing dynasty (born on November 23, 912), was buried in Magdeburg Cathedral after his death in 973, alongside his wife Editha, who had died in 946. Since the cathedral was rebuilt in the 13th century, the emperor's tomb has been located in the center of the inner choir. It consists of a simple, coffered limestone sarcophagus covered by an oversized marble slab.

1. Tomb slab of Otto the Great. Front side

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2. Macroscopic examination of the plate.

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3. Macroscopic examination of plate 1

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Since January 2025, the tomb of Emperor Otto I in Magdeburg Cathedral has been undergoing renovation and conservation work as part of a comprehensive cooperation project between the Saxony-Anhalt Cultural Foundation and the Saxony-Anhalt State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and Archaeology. After extensive non-invasive documentation and examination work on the stone sarcophagus, the marble cover plate was removed at the beginning of March 2025. In this context, archaeometric analyses are being carried out to determine the material and origin of the plate. For this purpose, two drill samples were taken in June 2025, which are being examined petrographically using polarisation microscopy and geochemically and isotopically in collaboration with Dr. Walter Prochaska and Dr. Vasiliki Anevlavi from the Austrian Archaeological Institute in order to assign the marble to a deposit used in antiquity.

4. Core samples from Otto the Great's burial slab

The findings to date show that the material used for the cover slab does not originate from the Carrara quarries in the Apuan Alps in Italy or from the island of Euboea in Greece, as previously assumed, but from Prokonnesos (now Marmara Island, Turkey).

Written sources provide no information about the original source of the marble slab used as spolia. Whether further investigations will succeed in narrowing down its original source—for example, from an ancient city in the Mediterranean region or from Roman cities in what is now Germany—remains a subject for future research.

5.-6. Thin section images of marble samples: medium-grained marble with fine-grained areas, with a characteristic heteroblastic mortar structure. Origin: Prokonnesos (Marmara Island).

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5.-6. Thin section images of marble samples: medium-grained marble with fine-grained areas, with a characteristic heteroblastic mortar structure. Origin: Prokonnesos (Marmara Island).

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Project Management

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Vilma Ruppienė
Professor für Klassische Archäologie mit dem Schwerpunkt Methoden der Archäometrie
Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Am Bergbaumuseum 31, 44791 Bochum
Raum: 0.3.4
Tel.: (0234) 32-28546
Mail: Vilma.Ruppiene@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Partner

Dr. Veit Dresely und Dr. Donat Wehner: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt.

Dr. Walter Prochaska und Dr. Vasiliki Anevlavi: Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut an der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Wien).

Financial support