The Sky Disc of Nebra: Turning point in world-view
The Sky Disc of Nebra ranks with Ötzi or Tutankamen’s tomb as one of the most important archaeological discoveries of our time. The 3,600-year-old disc is the oldest concrete representation of the cosmos to date worldwide.
The treasure looters, who found the disc at night on the Mittelberg, first thought it was an old pail lid.
Since 1999 when treasure looters discovered the disc on the Mittelberg near Nebra, it has travelled around the entire world. Beginning in May 2008, the 3,600-year-old astronomical calendar will be on permanent display in the Halle Museum of Prehistory, which after its extensive renovation completes the new tourist route “Sky Paths”. The sky disc was buried at the peak of the Mittelberg near Nebra (Burgen District) along with two valuable swords, two axes, two spiral bracelets and a chisel, probably as an “offering to the gods”. When the looters secretly unearthed it in 1999, they revealed a repository of knowledge from our Bronze Age ancestors, who had no writing system and who eternalized their world-view on the disc in gold and bronze.
The disc, which weighs two kilograms and was cast from a single piece of bronze is almost a perfect circle with a diameter between 31 and 32 centimeters. Several of the representations on the disc can be clearly recognized: a ship as a mythical element on its celestial journey across the ocean of the heavens, the sun, the moon, and stars as golden dots. One group of seven stars is said to represent the Pleiades, considered a calendar in many ancient cultures because this star cluster rises and sets exactly once each year. Two long arcs along the edge represent the horizon; one seems to have been removed before the disc was deposited. The thin appliqués were driven in with a hammer. Archaeologists are now certain that Bronze Age people envisioned the earth as a flat disc roofed by a dome-like sky. They had extraordinary astronomical knowledge and contacts all across Europe and even beyond.
Most likely, the disc served to harmonize the lunar calendar and the solar year, as the Babylonians did in Mesopotamia. The astronomical background: The solar year consists of 365 days. The lunar calendar used to structure this solar year has only 354 days. The solution: Every two to three years an intercalary or 13th month was inserted.
Smelted by powerful princes
Archaeologists assume that the disc was smelted by powerful princes. In the early Bronze Age, approximately 2200 to 1600 BC, central Germany including the region that is now Saxony-Anhalt was one of the economic and intellectual centres of prehistoric Europe. For the first time, a strongly hierarchical society formed here, as proven by the barrows or princely graves dated to this time period in Leubingen or Helmsdorf (Saxony-Anhalt). At these courts, people had mastered the technique of inlay work that was used for the golden heavenly bodies on the disc. Archaeologists believe that the disc was in use between 100 and 400 years and know that its content and religious significance changed several times during this period.
The knowledge perpetuated on the disc was also known to the builders of circles such as Stonehenge or the even earlier 7000-year-old solar observatory of Goseck. In prehistoric times, people built these circles to maintain lines of sight to astronomical phenomena. Thus the large alley in Stonehenge is directed towards the June 21st summer solstice, the gates of the Goseck observatory towards the December 21st winter solstice. There is also a direct line of sight on the Mittelberg, a natural observatory. From here, early people watched the sun set behind the Brocken (highest peak in the Harz range) about 80 kilometers away. They could then determine, among other things, the appropriate times for planting and harvesting.
The controversy surrounding the authenticity of the disc, which was continually a point of heated discussion, has meanwhile been cleared up. The composition of metals in the disc is typical of the Bronze Age. The patina is of coarse-grained malachite impossible to counterfeit, and traces of soil from the Mittelberg were found in the corrosion of the disc.
In 1999, the looters did not immediately comprehend the significance of their discovery on the Mittelberg. They first believed the disc was an old pail lid, later part of a shield because they had also found swords. They had actually climbed the mountain to look for military artefacts.
Beginning May 23rd, 2008, the original sky disc will be on display at the newly renovated Museum of Prehistory.
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