Magdeburg in 805 – a venue of the »early Saxon occupation of the Magdeburg area«?

Abstract

This contribution presents single results of the analysis of the excavations between 1959 and 1965 on the cathedral square at Magdeburg. The same campaign then traced a »double-ditched structure« which was interpreted as a fortification of Charles the Great. However, in 2005, R. Kuhn has attributed these defence ditches to the Migration Period and suggested that they were dug in context with the supposed »Saxon occupation of the Magdeburg area« in the 6th century. On the basis of an intensive source-critical re-examination of Kuhn’s arguments and a number of newly dated features from the former excavation of E. Nickel it is demonstrated that archaeology alone cannot affirm the ditches with this historical period with certainty.