Provenance of Medieval atlantes in the Ribe Cathedral, Denmark, based on geological and palaeontological investigations

Abstract

An atlante is a corbel figure (or pillar support) sculpted in the form of a man carrying a heavy load. A group of well-preserved stone carved atlantes from c. 1250 carrying the vaults of the Ribe Cathedral in western Jylland, Denmark, represents the antique titan Atlas and are up to 150 cm high. Their obviously foreign origin has so far remained uncertain. The figures are made of a relatively soft, sandy limestone. A new nannofossil analysis of small chips of the chalky and sandy limestone narrows the age of the stone down to the late Campanian (Late Cretaceous). Upper Campanian sandy limestones of this type are exposed in the Münster Basin in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. The Campanian Baumberger Sandstein in this region fits well with the atlantes in terms of lithology and age and is the only possible provenance of the stone. Around 1250 the Baumberger Sandstein was used for baptismal fonts as far north as Ostfriesland at the Dutch-German border, and it is a novel finding of this investigation that it even reached Denmark. The stone was most likely floated along the rivers Lippe and Rhine and shipped via the Wadden Sea to Ribe. It is a remarkably long transport distance for historic commercial stone transportation in continental northern European art in the High Middle Ages.