Nebra sky disc
Another arc at the bottom with internal parallel lines is usually interpreted as a solar boat with numerous oars,[5] although some authors have also suggested that it may represent a rainbow,[6] the Aurora Borealis,[7] a comet,[8] or a sickle.
"[17] The disc, together with two bronze swords, two sets of remains of axes, a chisel, and fragments of spiral armbands were discovered in 1999 by Henry Westphal and Mario Renner while they were treasure-hunting with a metal detector.
[citation needed] In February 2002, the state archaeologist, Harald Meller, acquired the disc in a police-led sting operation in Basel from a couple who had put it on the black market for 700,000 DM.
The discovery site is a prehistoric enclosure encircling the top of a 252 metres (827 ft) elevation in the Ziegelroda Forest, known as Mittelberg ("central hill"), some 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Leipzig.
At the enclosure's location, the sun seems to set every summer solstice behind the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountains, some 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the northwest.
[20][21] According to an initial analysis of trace elements by x-ray fluorescence by E. Pernicka, then at the University of Freiberg, the copper originated at Bischofshofen in Austria, whilst the gold was thought to be from the Carpathian Mountains.
[24] As preserved, the disc was developed in four stages: The find is regarded as reconfirming that the astronomical knowledge and abilities of the people of the European Bronze Age included close observation of the yearly course of the Sun and the angle between its rising and setting points at the summer and winter solstices.
While much older earthworks and megalithic astronomical complexes, such as the Goseck circle and Stonehenge, had already been used to mark the solstices, the disc presents this knowledge in the form of a portable object.
[33] According to one of the seven rules in the compendium, a leap month should be added when the Pleiades appear next to a crescent moon a few days old in the spring, as depicted on the disc.
[37] Baltic amber beads have been found in a foundational deposit under the large ziggurat of Aššur in Iraq dating from c. 1800-1750 BC, indicating that a connection existed between both regions when the Nebra disc was created.
[49] The Metonic cycle is also thought to be encoded on the Late Bronze Age Berlin Gold Hat, which features a band of 19 "star and crescent" symbols.
"[52][53] Depictions of the Pleiades are also known from some rock carvings dating from the early Bronze Age, such as at Mont Bégo in the southern Alps[54][55] and on the 'Calendar Stone' at Leodagger in Austria, a cult site associated with the Únětice culture which may have functioned as a calendar.
[58][59][60] A depiction of a sun and crescent moon similar to the Nebra disc appears on a gold signet ring from Mycenae in Greece, dating from the fifteenth century BC.
[79] In Greek mythology the Sun's vessel takes the form of a golden bowl or cup, which may resemble the bowl-like shape of the Nebra boat.
[80][81] Similar artefacts from the Bronze Age include the ship-like Caergwrle bowl from Wales[82] and minature gold boats from Nors in Denmark.
[88] Isis was equated with Hathor from the New Kingdom onwards, and both goddesses were associated with the solar barque, often being depicted at the prow of the ship, which they steered and protected.
[94] According to Kristian Kristiansen the pairs of swords and axes deposited with the Nebra Disc represent the mythological Divine Twins, later known as the Dioscuri in Greece and as the Ashvins in India, among other Indo-European traditions.
[96] The archeologist Timothy Darvill has suggested a connection between these paired depositions and the Nebra Disc with the trilithons at Stonehenge, which may also represent an early form of the Divine Twins.
[97] The central trilithon in particular may have embodied "a pair of deities representing day and night, the sun and moon, summer and winter, life and death, perhaps even the prehistoric equivalents of the twins Apollo and Artemis as they are known in later pantheons across the Old World.
[101][102] According to Euan MacKie (2009) "The Nebra disc and the Bush Barrow lozenge both seem to be designed to reflect the annual solar cycle at about latitude 51° north.
"[103] MacKie further suggests that both the Nebra disc and Bush Barrow lozenge may be linked to the solar calendar reconstructed by Alexander Thom from his analysis of standing stone alignments in Britain.
[23][105] According to the archaeologist Sabine Gerloff the gold plating technique used on the Nebra sky disc also originated in Britain, and was introduced from there to the continent.
[1][15] The disc was the centre of an exhibition entitled Der geschmiedete Himmel (German "The forged sky"), showing 1,600 Bronze Age artefacts, including the Trundholm sun chariot, shown at Halle from 15 October 2004 to 22 May 2005, from 1 July to 22 October 2005 in Copenhagen, from 9 November 2005 to 5 February 2006 in Vienna, from 10 March to 16 July 2006 in Mannheim, and from 29 September 2006 to 25 February 2007 in Basel.
[111] In November 2021, a replica of the Nebra Sky Disc was launched to the International Space Station on the Crew-3 mission, taken by German astronaut Matthias Maurer.
The defenders argued that as a cult object, the disc had already been "published" approximately 3,500 years earlier in the Bronze Age and that consequently, all protection of intellectual property associated with it has long expired.
