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Spooky finds in German archaeological dig
Sapa-DPA ^
| September 25 2002 at 07:44PM
| Editorial Staff
Posted on 09/30/2002 1:39:19 PM PDT by vannrox
Nebra, Germany - Archaeologists offered a first glimpse on Wednesday of a lost culture's holy site atop a German peak, and confirmed it as the source of the world's oldest map of the heavens.
The exact location has been kept secret for weeks, amid fears that treasure-seekers would move in and disturb Bronze Age remains.
The site is atop the Mittelberg, a 252m hill in the Ziegelroda Forest, 180km south-west of Berlin.
Adding a spooky touch is the discovery that, seen from the Mittelberg, the sun sets every June 22 behind the Brocken, the highest mountain in northern Germany. The Brocken is in a direct line of sight on a clear day, 85km to the north-west.
| 'The oldest concrete representation of the stars in the world' |
The Brocken is fabled in northern European mythology as the place where witches gather for a coven every April 30.
Scientists are still scratching their heads at the full meaning of a 32cm bronze-and-gold disc found by treasure hunters on the Mittelberg in 1999. The map on its face shows the Brocken as well as 32 stars including the Pleiades.
Experts in pre-history can only guess at the identity of the people who made the "Nebra Disc" 3 600 years ago.
"This disc, with the oldest concrete representation of the stars in the world, was placed in a pit in the middle of a ringwall during the early Bronze Age," Harald Meller, the chied archaeologist in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said on Wednesday.
"We still don't know if it was a princely grave or a treasure store for holy objects."
On Wednesday reporters were shown a clearing where the archaeological dig had gone down about half a metre into the soil, leaving what appeared to be loose stone walls standing. The site was once surrounded by wooden palisades and a complex of defensive ditches.
Wolfhard Schlosser, an expert in ancient astronomy at the University of the Ruhr, added, "The ringwall was built in such a way that the sun seemed to disappear every equinox behind the Brocken."
Experts believe the map and site formed an observatory, which was used to set the calendar for planting and harvesting crops.
The nearby forest contains 1 000 barrows or princely graves from the period, but little else is known about the lost people, who are not mentioned in ancient Greek or other Mediterranean sources.
Meller said two bronze swords found at the site had been made with a technique unique to Mycenaean and Anatolian swords, and had a similar shape to arms found in modern Romania and Hungary. The site is to become a tourist attraction when the dig finishes in a year or two. - Sapa-DPA
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Germany; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: discovery; explore; godsgravesglyphs; history; lost; mountain; past
Very interesting.
1
posted on
09/30/2002 1:39:19 PM PDT
by
vannrox
2
posted on
09/30/2002 1:39:39 PM PDT
by
Mo1
To: blam; *Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Ancient mystery ping.
3
posted on
09/30/2002 1:55:59 PM PDT
by
El Sordo
To: vannrox
Wasn't The Great Pyramid lined up with the same star system at about the same time in history?
4
posted on
09/30/2002 2:02:42 PM PDT
by
johnny7
To: johnny7
I thought it was Orion.
5
posted on
09/30/2002 2:22:46 PM PDT
by
3AngelaD
To: johnny7
Wasn't The Great Pyramid lined up with the same star system What do you mean? Isn't the GP is aligned north-south to the earth?
To: RightWhale
Correct. North-South.
I used to have my math students try to figure a way to align a Pyramid using only primitive tools. Hint: a stick and a rope are sufficient.
To: Doctor Stochastic
Unfortunately the students are not aligning 480 high buildings or ones that have 20 ton stones to manuever. Nor do they place them in the center of the earth's land mass. Among dozens of other incredible "coincidences."
To: justshutupandtakeit
Once you've got the floor laid out, keeping the stones aligned is not an impossible feat.
Where does the 'center of mass' thing come from? That probably is just a coincidence. More likely it's just someone cooking the numbers.
9
posted on
09/30/2002 3:10:53 PM PDT
by
El Sordo
To: vannrox
Where's Art Bell when you need him?
10
posted on
09/30/2002 3:12:36 PM PDT
by
Nachum
To: vannrox
To: LostTribe
Amazing.
Just another simple observatory, similar to dozens around the globe, made with clever artifice and ingenuity. And the reason always proffered for these unique astrological platforms? Why, so that the primitives would know the precise instant in which to drop a seed in a stick-scratched furrow in the ground. Yep, star alignments, geophysical constructs, and enduring monuments all brought together for the simple folk to plant some crops.
Despite the wonderful arguments for such an august objective, wouldn't a couple of sticks in the ground have sufficed, or a stone on the ground that captured a shadow of another edifice twice a year have been sufficient?
Maybe I'm jaded, but that seems to evince a lot of brain power for crop planting, evincing a tad bit of overkill to farm and till and harvest a field.
12
posted on
09/30/2002 5:45:25 PM PDT
by
Thommas
To: Thommas
>Maybe I'm jaded, but that seems to evince a lot of brain power for crop planting,
HA! No, I don't think you are jaded. Some of things seem to be WAAAAAY over analyzed, and ignore that would have been obvious to the locals at that time..
To: Thommas
Maybe I'm jaded, but that seems to evince a lot of brain power for crop planting, evincing a tad bit of overkill to farm and till and harvest a field. We are in the prenumbra of the finest shaved edge on the very tip of the pinnacle of cultural and technological achievement of mankind from appearance on the Earth to dissappearance from the Earth. To suggest that a period of history deemed "primitive" could have had advanced tools made for advanced purposes from advanced motivations and planning upsets the sacred curve of developement and is considered among the most abysmal of heresies imaginable.
To: El Sordo
Check the location of the GP and note that a longitudenal line through it goes through the greatest land areas N&S same is true with a latitudinal line W&E.
There are far too many coincidences when it comes to the GP. (And NO other.)
Lifting 20 ton stones over 400 ft. with unknown equipment does not sound very easy. Even today it is not easy and requires gigantic machinery.
To: vannrox
When I saw the word "spooky" in the title, my first thought was that they found a picture of Barbra Steisand.
16
posted on
10/01/2002 8:24:30 AM PDT
by
dfwgator
To: Thommas
Maybe I'm jaded, but that seems to evince a lot of brain power for crop planting, evincing a tad bit of overkill to farm and till and harvest a field.A book I've read about the Great Pyramids and many lessor ones is that they were convenient surveying markers for redrawing property lines after the Nile floods. They could be seen for miles and that so long as any two pyramids could be seen, you could triangulate your on position, etc.
17
posted on
10/06/2002 9:29:51 AM PDT
by
BradyLS
To: vannrox
Another example of ancient civilization...over 3500 years old...and obviously from a group of people who were a bit smart. We simply are not giving these folks enough credit. They figured out an enormous amount of information without the aid of computers or government grants or think tanks.
To: blam; Ernest_at_the_Beach; FairOpinion; StayAt HomeMother
19
posted on
09/03/2005 9:07:19 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Down with Dhimmicrats! I last updated by FR profile on Sunday, August 14, 2005.)
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