Quick facts
name: Nebra Sky Desk
What is it: A Bronze dial with gold accents
Where is he from: Nebra, Germany
When it was made: About 1800 to 1600 BC
The Nebra Sky Disc was discovered in an artifact hoard in 1999, when metal detectors illegally excavated it from an ancient religious site on a hill near Nebra, a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. After police recovered the disk in 2002, archaeologists studied the unique object, revealing that it was up to 3,800 years old and the world’s oldest depiction of astronomical phenomena. (The next oldest is A Star map on Ceiling of an ancient Egyptian tomb About 3,500 years ago.)
Based on the style of the axes and carbon dating of the wood in the hilts of the swords found with the disc found in Mineral treasureexperts believe The sky disk was buried Around 1600 BC, during the Early Bronze Age, but were probably created two centuries earlier.
Some research has He questioned the authenticity of the discSaying it probably did not come from Nebra, but was about 1,000 years older, based on soil and chemical analysis of the artifact. A later study disputed these claims and found that The disc was original and from Nebra But this was done in several stages.
Close examination of the disc showed that it had been manufactured At least five stages. Initially, the bronze disc included the full moon, or sun, crescent moon, and 32 stars. Two brackets were then placed on each side of the disk. A third arch, perhaps representing a boat, was then added to the bottom. In the fourth stage, the edge of the disk was perforated, suggesting that it may have been attached to a support, such as a pillar for ceremonial use. Finally, the left arch was removed before the disc was buried with the metal treasure. But experts do not know exactly when the disc was made or how much time passed between the decoration stages.
The Nebra Sky disk appears to represent the night sky, with several stars making up the sky chandelierOr the Seven Sisters star cluster. The golden arcs on each side of the disc may represent the horizon, marking the summer and winter solstices, and the boat may have been a mythical boat transporting the sun across the sky from east to west in the day and back at night.
By aligning the disk of the sky with the plateau on Mittelberg Hill, Where it was foundThe arc of the western horizon is aligned with the Brocken Mountain, a high mountain behind which the sun disappears Summer solstice. This suggests that the Sky Disc may have been used to track important astronomical dates in prehistoric times.
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But who used the sky disk and who buried it remains a mystery, partly because it was recovered by treasure hunters rather than in scientific excavation. Treasure hunters damaged the Golden Sun or Full Moon, scratched the surface, and cleaned it improperly. However, given the numerous well-furnished burial mounds for important people that dotted central Germany as early as 2000 BC, the Sky Disc may have once belonged to one of Bronze Age leader.
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