What is the Nebra sky disc?
The Nebra sky disc is a bronze disc found on the Mittelberg hill near Nebra in Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany. About 32 cm across, its green-patinated surface shows, in thin sheets of gold, the sun or full moon, a crescent moon and about 30 stars. It is now held at the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle and was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2013.
From looting to recovery
The disc was dug up in 1999 by looters using metal detectors, together with swords and axes. It was then sold again and again on the black market, until in 2002 in Basel, Switzerland, police posing as buyers caught the sellers in the act and safely recovered it.
The cosmos on the disc
The cluster of seven stars on the disc is thought to represent the Pleiades (Subaru in Japanese). The times when the Pleiades disappear from and reappear in the western evening sky were important markers for farm work in ancient times.
Gold arcs were added to the rim later, and one theory says they show the range of directions of sunrise and sunset between the summer and winter solstices. An arc said to represent a sun boat is also depicted. The disc seems to have been reworked several times and used over a long period.
The Nebra sky disc as an OOPArt
Considered one of the oldest concrete depictions of the cosmos in the world, it shows that Bronze Age people had more advanced astronomical knowledge than expected. Some researchers argue for a different date, but most consider it to be from the Bronze Age. Another site said to be linked with heavenly bodies is Stonehenge. Famous OOPArts are listed on the OOPArts page.
