Sky disc of Nebra shines in Basel

SwissInfo ^ | November 22, 2006 | Urs Maurer

[SunkenCiv]

Made out of bronze with gold embossing, the 3,600-year-old object is an astronomical clock. It connects the sun and the moon calendars together, with the sun giving the day and year and the moon, the month. The moon year is, however, 11 days shorter than the sun year. This was taken into account in ancient times by adding an extra month, leading experts to believe that people in the Bronze Age were already making sophisticated astronomical observations similar to those written about by the Babylonians around 1,000 years later. The disc is thought to be a depiction of the Bronze Age view of the world - the Earth as a disc with the sky arching over it in a dome... The 32-centimetre disc, which weighs around two kilograms, was found – along with other valuables – in Nebra in eastern Germany. According to Tschudin, the site is well known to archaeologists and has been called "a buried history book" as it contains thousands of burial mounds... Also on show at the Basel exhibition are Swiss exhibits from the Bronze Age. This includes a golden bowl, dating from around 1,000 BC, which was found in Zurich, and which also shows the heavens. And there is a golden goblet from Eschenz on Lake Constance which is the same age as the sky disc. The Trundholm Sun Chariot from Denmark, which shows a horse drawing the sun in a chariot, is also on display, as well as many burial mound articles, weapons and jewellery. Experts say that the exhibition – thanks to the sky disc and the vast number of rare items on show – is one of the best on the Bronze Age.

[SunkenCiv]

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The sky disc of Nebra is being shown in Basel (Basel history museum)

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[SunkenCiv]

I think we'd had a topic about this disk, but I'm just too lazy and well fed to check.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[annie laurie]

Wow ... serendipity, Civ :)

I just got home, and on my way in I spent several minutes admiring the Pleiades; the air is especially clear tonight, and I could see 6 of them easily (which is quite unusual here).

Then I walked in, checked my pings, saw this thread, and ... lo and behold ... there are the 'sisters' again. Very cool :)

Here's another short article if you're interested; the Nebra disk is about halfway down the page:

http://www.wam.umd.edu/~tlaloc/archastro/news.html

Happy Thanksgiving :)

[Fred Nerks]

Dated around the middle of the second millenium before the present era...

that's got to be Mars, the crescent Moon and 'the horns of Venus'.

Just give me a sec, I'll go and get my WIC! (Don't have an Iliad at the moment...)

[annie laurie]

From the link in post 3:

"There are two arcs, opposite to each other, of 82.7 each - exactly the distance between the northern- and southernmost points of sunset and sunrise from Saxony-Anhalt in the bronze age. Thus we have a mathematical clue as well that the disk belongs to the Nebra area.

The short arc in between the two big ones was on the bottom of the disk in the orientation it was found: This supports the interpretation as a "sun barge" travelling between sunset and sunrise. Another interpretation had been that we are dealing with a particularly bright section of the Milky Way.

The meaning of the two largest objects is uncertain: the Sun and the Moon or rather the Full Moon and a lunar crescent? Astronomers favor the latter view: It would have been too big an act of abstract thinking for our bronze age artist to visualize the Sun in a sky full of stars.

Seven of those stars form a tight pattern, the only one on the whole disk. While this could equally well mean the Plejades and the Praesepe star cluster or the small constellation Delphinus, preference is given to the Pleiades: In contrast to the other interpretations this asterism plays a significant role in ancient texts.

The other stars are distributed on the disk in as random a fashion as possible when one actively tries to avoid the formation of any pattern - this has actually been demonstrated by experiments at Bochum University. A true random distribution with Poisson statistics would look much more clumpy."

[Fred Nerks]

The meaning of the two largest objects is uncertain: the Sun and the Moon or rather the Full Moon and a lunar crescent?

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While the astromomers are uncertain, my theory is as good as theirs. There are countless myths and legends from all over the planet that refer to a celestial phenomenon in which Venus, Mars and to a lesser extent, the Moon were involved.

This disc might be a visual representation in artform. Makes sense if the artisans had no written language.

[annie laurie]

While the astromomers are uncertain, my theory is as good as theirs.

Absolutely :) Just thought you might find it interesting reading.

[Fred Nerks]

Oh, I did, I forgot to thank you! Sorry.

[annie laurie]

No apology needed at all :)

Always a pleasure to chat with other astrophiles :)

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.grazian-archive.com/quantavolution/QuantaHTML/vol_11/burning_of_troy_p1_05.htm

a little background...

[annie laurie]

Thanks!

[grey_whiskers]

I just wonder what people in the future are going to make of this:

Cheers!

[Fred Nerks]

the folks who live on the third rock from the sun are naked?

[Sawdring]

I just wonder what people in the future are going to make of this:

Especially since the ninth planet isn't even a planet anymore.

[SunkenCiv]