The
Nebra sky disk is a bronze disk of around 30 cm diameter, with a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols. These are interpreted generally as a sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, and stars (including a cluster interpreted as the
Pleiades).
Two golden arcs along the sides, marking the angle between the solstices, were added later. A final addition was another arc at the bottom surrounded with multiple strokes (of uncertain meaning, variously interpreted as a
Solar Barge with numerous oars, as the
Milky Way, or as a rainbow).
The disk is attributed to a site near
Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt in
Germany, and associatively dated to c. 1600 BC.
It has been associated with the
Bronze Age Unetice culture.
Discovery
The disk, two bronze swords, two hatchets, a chisel and fragments of spiral bracelets were discovered by
Henry Westphal and
Mario Renner while treasure hunting with a metal detector in
1999.
Archaeological artifacts are the property of the state in Saxony-Anhalt and the hunters were operating withouta license and knew their activities constituted looting. They damaged the disk by their spade and destroyed parts of the site.
Already the next day,
Westphal and Renner sold the entire hoard for 31,
000 DM to a dealer in
Cologne. The hoard exchanged hands throughout Germany over the next two years,
being sold for up to a million DM. By
2001 knowledge of its existence became public. In
February 2002 the state archaeologist Harald Meller acquired the disk in a police-led sting operation in
Basel from a couple who had put it on the black market for 700,000 DM.The looters were eventually traced back. In a plea bargain, they led police and archaeologists to the discovery site. Archaeologists have opened a dig at the site and have uncovered
evidence that support the looters' claim in the form of traces of bronze artefacts in the ground, as well as matching earth samples found sticking to the artifacts. The disk and its accompanying finds are now in
Halle in the
State Museum of
Prehistory. The two looters received a four months and a ten months sentence by a
Naumburg court in
September 2003. They went into appeal, but the appeal court raised their sentence to six and twelve months,
respectively.
The discovery site is a prehistoric enclosure encircling the top of a 252 metres (827 ft) elevation in the Ziegelroda
Forest, known as
Mittelberg ("central hill"), some 60 km west of
Leipzig. The surrounding area is known to have been settled since the Neolithic, and Ziegelroda Forest is said to contain around 1,000 barrows.
The enclosure is oriented in such a way that the sun seems to set every solstice behind the Brocken, the highest peak of the
Harz mountains, some 80 km
to the north-west. It was claimed by the treasure-hunters that the artefacts were discovered within a pit inside the bank-and-ditch enclosure.
The significance of the site to prehistoric dwellers is underlined by the proximity to the much older
Goseck circle.
Significance
The disk is possibly an astronomical instrument as well as an item of religious significance. The blue-green patina of the bronze may have been an
intentional part of the original artifact.
If authentic, the find reconfirms that the astronomical knowledge and abilities of the people of the
European Bronze Age included close observation of
the yearly course of the Sun, and the angle between its rising and setting points at summer and winter solstice. While
Stonehenge and the Neolithic
"circular ditches" such as the
5th millennium BC Goseck circle were used to mark the solstices, the disk is the oldest known "portable" instrument to
allow such measurements.
Documentary : Sectrets of the
Star Disk
Music:
Two Steps From Hell -
Super Strenght and
Audiomachine -
Nameless Heroes
Copyright Disclaimer: Under
Section 107 of the
Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
- published: 06 Aug 2012
- views: 6721