 Diagram of the disk in its current condition (a star and a part of the full moon was restored). The Nebra sky disk is associatively dated to c. 1600 BC and attributed to a site at Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. It is a bronze disk of around 30cm diameter, patinated blue-green and inlaid with gold symbols interpreted by some as a sun or full moon, stars (including a cluster interpreted as the Pleiades) and a crescent with multiple strokes, interpreted as a sun boat with many oars. It has been associated with the Bronze Age Unetice culture. Download high resolution version (918x901, 98 KB)The Nebra Skydisk in a simplified diagram. ...
Download high resolution version (918x901, 98 KB)The Nebra Skydisk in a simplified diagram. ...
(17th century BC - 16th century BC - 15th century BC - other centuries) (1600s BC - 1590s BC - 1580s BC - 1570s BC - 1560s BC - 1550s BC - 1540s BC - 1530s BC - 1520s BC - 1510s BC - 1500s BC - other decades) (3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC) Events 1700 - 1500 BC -- Hurrian conquests...
Nebra is a small city in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. ...
With an area of 20,447 km² and a population of 2. ...
Assorted ancient bronze castings found as part of a cache, probably intended for recycling. ...
The Pleiades are an open cluster dominated by hot blue stars surrounded by reflection nebulosity The Pleiades (also known as M45 or the Seven Sisters) is an open cluster in the constellation of Taurus. ...
Ra in his Solar barge A Solar barge (also Solar bark, Solar boat, Sun boat) is a mythological representation of the Sun riding in a boat. ...
Unetice, or more properly UÌnÄ›tice, culture, (German: Aunjetitz) is the name given to an early Bronze Age culture, preceded by the Beaker culture and followed by the Tumulus culture. ...
If authentic, the find sheds new light on the astronomical knowledge and abilities of the people of the European Bronze Age, such as the builders of Stonehenge. Judging from the angles set by gilded arcs along the sky disk's circumference, it may be that the Bronze Age cultures in Central Europe made far more sophisticated celestial measurements far earlier than has been suspected. Astronomy (Greek: αστÏονομία = άστÏον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally, law of the stars) is the science of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere, such as stars, planets, comets, aurora, galaxies, and the cosmic background radiation. ...
The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ...
Stonehenge Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Salisbury. ...
The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ...
The object is not without controversy. Richard Harrison, professor of European prehistory at the University of Bristol and an expert on the Beaker people allowed his initial reaction to be quoted in a BBC documentary (link below): The University of Bristol is a university in Bristol in the United Kingdom. ...
The Beaker people (or `Beaker folk) were an archaeological culture present in prehistoric Europe, defined by a pottery style -- a beaker with a distinctive bell-shaped profile -- that many archeologists believe spread across the western part of the Continent during the 3rd millennium BC. The pottery is particularly prevalent in...
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the largest publicly-funded radio and television broadcasting corporation of the United Kingdom (see British television) and the world. ...
- "When I first heard about the Nebra Disc I thought it was a joke, indeed I thought it was a forgery. Because it’s such an extraordinary piece that it wouldn’t surprise any of us that a clever forger had cooked this up in a backroom and sold it for a lot of money."
Though Harrison had not seen the skydisk when he was interviewed, it was a reasonable skepticism at that point. The disk had appeared as if from nowhere on the international antiquities market in 2001. Its seller claimed that it had been looted by illegal treasure hunters with a metal detector in 1999. Archaeological artefacts are the property of the state in Saxony-Anhalt and following a police sting operation in Basel, Switzerland, the disk was acquired by the state archaeologist. As part of a plea bargain, the illicit owners led police and archaeologists to the site where they had found it together with other remains (two bronze swords, two hatchets, a chisel and fragments of spiral bracelets). Though no witnesses were present at the first discovery, 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). The disk and its accompanying finds are now in the Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte (State Museum for Prehistory) of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...
1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
Archaeology or sometimes in American English archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ...
The discovery site identified by the arrested metal detectorists is a prehistoric enclosure encircling the top of a hill. Strikingly, the hill is still called the Mittelberg ('Central Hill'), a 252m hill in the Ziegelroda Forest, 180km southwest of Berlin. The enclosure is oriented in such a way that the sun seems to set every equinox behind the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountains. The nearby forest is said to contain around 1,000 barrows. It was claimed by the treasure-hunters that the artifacts were discovered within a pit inside the bank-and-ditch enclosure. Berlin is the capital city and a single state of the Federal Republic of Germany. ...
An equinox in astronomy is the moment when the Sun passes over the equator. ...
The Brocken, or Blocksberg, is the highest peak (1142 meters) in the Germany, between the rivers Weser and Elbe. ...
The Harz is a mountain range in northern Germany. ...
Burial of Oleg of Novgorod in a tumulus in 912. ...
As the item was not excavated using archaeological methods, even its claimed provenance may be made up, authenticating it has depended on microphotography of the corrosion crystals (see link), which produced images that could not be reproduced by a faker— and which, incidentally, are very beautiful scientific micrographs in themselves. The more precise dating of the Nebra skydisk, however, depended upon the dating of a number of Bronze Age weapons which were offered for sale with the disk and said to be from the same site. These axes and swords can be typologically dated to the mid 2nd millennium BC (Unetice culture). Those who have examined the disk point out that its patina indicates the disk's antiquity, and the interested reader may want to look at the micrographs in the article linked below and assess whether such effects could be produced chemically by a counterfeiter. One skeptic has suggested parallels with the controversy surrounding the Shroud of Turin. According to an analysis of trace elements by x-ray fluorescence by E. Pernicka, University of Freiberg, the copper originated at the Mitterberg in Austria, while the gold is from the Carpathian Mountains. Copper from Bottendorf in the immediate vicinity of Nebra has definitely not been used. But few copper objects are found where they were originally smelted. (3rd millennium BC – 2nd millennium BC – 1st millennium BC – other millennia) // Events To grasp the spirit of the 2nd millennium BC, we must divide it in two parts, for there is a period of change around its middle so important that it creates two separate sub-millennia. First half (2000...
Unetice, or more properly UÌnÄ›tice, culture, (German: Aunjetitz) is the name given to an early Bronze Age culture, preceded by the Beaker culture and followed by the Tumulus culture. ...
Look up Controversy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For other uses, see Controversy (disambiguation). ...
The first photo of the Shroud of Turin, taken in 1898, had the surprising feature that the image on the negative was clearer than the positive image. ...
Freiberg is the name of two cities in Germany (note there is also a Freiburg) Freiberg, Saxony Freiberg (Neckar) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ...
Satellite image of the Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains are the eastern wing of the great Central Mountain System of Europe, curving 1500 km (~900 miles) along the borders of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia and northern Hungary. ...
General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic brown Atomic mass 63. ...
If the disk is authentic then it may be argued that quantitative astronomy in central Europe may possibly date back 3,600 years. Egyptian representations of the sky are purely schematic at this time. The lack of a secure archaeological context for the disk however, means that it is difficult to accurately date or even authenticate it. It is unlike any known artistic style from the period and has been described as a fake by some archaeologists.
Possibly a scientific instrument as well as an item of religious significance, the disk is a beautiful object; the blue-green patina of the bronze may have been an intentional part of the original artifact.
The disk has only just begun to attract the kind of pseudoarchaeology, Wiccan and paranormal speculation that hangs over Stonehenge. Recently, its authenticity has again been attacked by the archaeologist Prof. Peter Schauer, university of Regensburg, who interprets it as a shaman drum of unknown, but late, date. Pseudoarchaeology is an aspect of pseudohistory. ...
For the book series Wicca see Sweep (book series) and Circle Of Three. ...
Anomalous phenomena are phenomena which are observed and for which there are no suitable explanations in the context of a specific body of scientific knowledge, e. ...
Stonehenge Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Salisbury. ...
Regensburg (English formerly Ratisbon, Latin Ratisbona) is a city (population 150,212 in 2004) in Bavaria, south-east Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. ...
A shaman doctor of Kyzyl. ...
Near the dig city, in 23 km distance the Goseck circle was discovered. It is a solar observatory built ca 4900 BCE. Site of the Goseck circle. ...
See also
Four tall conical golden hats dating to between 1400 BC and 800 BC, have been found in Central Europe: one find in 1835 near Schifferstadt near Speyer dated to 1400-1300, one fragmentary find in 1844 near Avanton near Poitiers, one at Ezelsdorf near Nurnberg in 1953, dated to 1000...
The Sun Chariot pulled by a horse is believed to be a sculpture illustrating an important part of Nordic Bronze Age mythology. ...
The Tumulus culture which followed the Únêtice, and from which they descended, dominated central Europe during much of the second part of the second millenium B.C.E.. As the name implies, the Tumulus culture is distinguished by the practice of burying the dead beneath burial mounds. ...
The theory of Uriels Machine is postulated in a book of the same name by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas The book supposes that ancient (pre-historic) European (and by extension British) astronomers developed a stellar calendar. ...
External links - Brief description
- Transcript of BBC Horizon documentary on the disc
- Official Landesmuseum website with spectacular microphotos (German, with some English translation)
- http://www.physorg.com/news11357.html
Sources - E. Pernicka/C.-H Wunderlich, Naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen an den Funden von Nebra. Archäologie in Sachsen-Anhalt 1, 2002, 24-29.
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