{{short description|Bronze artefact, c. 1600 BC, found in Nebra, Germany}} {{Infobox artifact |name = The Nebra sky disc |image = Nebra disc 1.jpg |material = Bronze, Gold |width = {{convert|30|cm|in|abbr=on}} |weight = {{convert|2.2|kg|abbr=on}} |created = c. 1800–1600 BCE |period = Early Bronze Age |culture = Únětice culture |place = Nebra (Unstrut), Saxony-Anhalt, Germany |location = Halle State Museum of Prehistory |registration = [https://web.astronomicalheritage.net/index.php/show-entity?identity=96&idsubentity=1 Nebra Sky Disc — Bronze Age representation of the sky, Germany] |discovered_date = 1999 |discovered_coords = {{coord|51|17|02|N|11|31|12|E|region:DE-ST_type:landmark|display=inline,title}} |website = {{URL|https://www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky-disc|Nebra Sky Disc}} }} The '''Nebra sky disc''' ({{langx|de|Himmelsscheibe von Nebra}}, {{IPA|de|ˈhɪml̩sˌʃaɪbə fɔn ˈneːbra|pron}}) is a bronze disc of around {{convert|30|cm|in|0|abbr=on}} diameter and a weight of {{convert|2.2|kg|lb|abbr=on}}, having a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols.<ref name="Halle">{{cite web|url=https://www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky-disc.html |title=Nebra Sky Disc|website=Halle State Museum of Prehistory}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://the-past.com/feature/the-nebra-sky-disc-decoding-a-prehistoric-vision-of-the-cosmos/|title=The Nebra Sky Disc: decoding a prehistoric vision of the cosmos|website=The-Past.com|date=May 2022}}</ref> These symbols are interpreted generally as the Sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, and stars, including a cluster of seven stars, axiomatically interpreted as the Pleiades.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Eiland |first=Murray |date=2003 |title=Pre-heraldry on the Sangerhausen Disc |url=https://www.academia.edu/43158757 |journal=The Armiger's News |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=1, 9 |via=Academia.edu}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last1=Bohan |first1=Elise |title=Big History |last2=Dinwiddie |first2=Robert |last3=Challoner |first3=Jack |last4=Stuart |first4=Colin |last5=Harvey |first5=Derek |last6=Wragg-Sykes |first6=Rebecca |last7=Chrisp |first7=Peter |last8=Hubbard |first8=Ben |last9=Parker |first9=Phillip |collaboration=Writers |date=February 2016 |publisher=DK |others=Foreword by David Christian |isbn=978-1-4654-5443-0 |edition=1st American |location=New York |pages=20–21 |oclc=940282526}}</ref>
Two golden arcs along the sides (one now missing) are thought to have marked the angle between the solstices. Another arc at the bottom with internal parallel lines is usually interpreted as a solar boat with numerous oars,<ref name="The World of Stonehenge">{{cite book |title=The World of Stonehenge |date=June 2022 |pages=147–148 |publisher=British Museum Press |isbn=9780714123493 |last1=Garrow |first1=Duncan |last2=Wilkin |first2=Neil |oclc=1297081545 |quote=In its next phase of use, a third gold arc was added to the Sky Disc. Unlike the two solstice arcs, this addition did not serve to mark a particular celestial observation. It appears to be a representation of a 'sun ship'. ... Short feathered lines on each side of the gold sun boat on the Nebra Sky Disc may represent the oars of a crew.}}</ref> although some authors have also suggested that it may represent a rainbow,<ref name="AT210511">{{cite magazine |title=The Nebra Sky Disk: Is the world's oldest star map really a map at all? |magazine=Astronomy Today |date=May 11, 2021 |author=Joshua Rapp Learn |url=https://astronomy.com/news/2021/05/the-nebra-sky-disk-is-the-worlds-oldest-star-map-really-a-map-at-all |access-date=30 January 2022}}</ref> the Aurora Borealis,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mentock |first=Richard |title=Rethinking the Nebra Sky Disk |journal=Physics Today |date=November 2021 |volume=74 |issue=11 |page=10 |doi=10.1063/PT.3.4868 |bibcode=2021PhT....74k..10M |s2cid=240475208 |doi-access=free}}</ref> a comet,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crocco |first=Juan |title=Essay: What is depicted on the Nebra Sky Disc? |publisher=tredition |year=2022 |isbn=978-3-347-71288-1 |pages=87–102 |language=english}}</ref> or a sickle.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/235/the-nebra-sky-disk---ancient-map-of-the-stars/ |title=The Nebra Sky Disk - Ancient Map of the Stars |website=World History Encyclopedia |date=2011 |last=Haughton |first=Brian}}</ref>
In 1999, the disc was found buried on the Mittelberg hill near Nebra in Germany.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky-disc/the-place-of-discovery.html |title=Nebra Sky Disc: The Place of Discovery|website=Halle State Museum of Prehistory}}</ref> It is dated by archaeologists to {{circa|1800–1600 BC}} and attributed to the Early Bronze Age Únětice culture.<ref name="Nebra Sky Disc: Nomination">{{cite web|url=https://en.unesco.org/memoryoftheworld/registry/500|title=Nebra Sky Disc: Nomination|website=UNESCO Memory of the World|quote=The Nebra Sky Disc is dated to the early Bronze Age. It was made circa 1800 BC and was in use over several generations until around 1600 BC when it was buried and dedicated to the gods.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www3.astronomicalheritage.net/index.php/show-entity?identity=96&idsubentity=1|title=Nebra Sky Disc — Bronze Age representation of the sky, Germany|website=UNESCO Portal to the Heritage of Astronomy}}</ref> Various scientific analyses of the disc, the items found with the disc, and the find spot have confirmed the Early Bronze Age dating.<ref name="Pernicka et al">{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/66916787|journal=Archaeologia Austriaca |volume=104 |publisher=Austrian Academy of Sciences |date=2020 |title=Why the Nebra Sky Disc Dates to the Early Bronze Age. An Overview of the Interdisciplinary Results |last1=Pernicka |first1=Ernst |last2=Adam|first2=Jörg |last3=Borg|first3=Gregor |last4=Brügmann|first4=Gerhard |last5=Bunnefeld|first5=Jan-Heinrich |last6=Kainz|first6=Wolfgang |last7=Klamm|first7=Mechthild |last8=Koiki|first8=Thomas |last9=Meller|first9=Harald |last10=Schwarz|first10=Ralf |last11=Stöllner|first11=Thomas |last12=Wunderlich|first12=Christian-Heinrich |last13=Reichenberger|first13=Alfred |pages=89–122|doi=10.1553/archaeologia104s89|s2cid=229208057 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky-disc/dating.html|title=Nebra Sky Disc: Dating|website=Halle State Museum of Prehistory}}</ref><ref name="oeaw.ac.at">{{cite web|url=https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/news/the-nebra-sky-disc-dates-from-the-early-bronze-age|title=The Nebra Sky Disc Dates from the Early Bronze Age|website=Austrian Academy of Sciences|date=2020}}</ref>
The Nebra sky disc features the oldest concrete depiction of astronomical phenomena known from anywhere in the world.<ref name="Halle" /><ref>{{cite book|oclc= 1297081545|title=The World of Stonehenge |date=June 2022 |page=144 |publisher=British Museum Press |isbn=9780714123493 |last1=Garrow|first1=Duncan |last2=Wilkin|first2=Neil}}</ref><ref name="Pernicka et al"/> In June 2013, it was included by UNESCO in its Memory of the World International Register and termed "one of the most important archaeological finds of the twentieth century."<ref>{{cite web |title=Nebra Sky Disc |url=https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/nebra-sky-disc |access-date=2025-06-02 |website=UNESCO Memory of the World}}</ref>
== Discovery == 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. The detectorists were operating without a license and knew their activity constituted looting and was illegal. Archaeological artefacts are the property of the state in Saxony-Anhalt. They damaged the disc with their spade and destroyed parts of the site. The next day, Westphal and Renner sold the entire hoard for 31,000 DM to a dealer in Cologne. The hoard changed hands, probably several times, within Germany during the next two years, being sold for up to a million DM. By 2001 knowledge of its existence had become public.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
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.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Meller, H.|date=January 2004|title=Star search|journal=National Geographic|pages=76–8}}</ref> The original finders were eventually traced. In a plea bargain, they led police and archaeologists to the discovery site. Archaeologists opened a dig at the site and uncovered evidence that supported the looters' claims. There were traces of bronze artefacts in the ground, and the soil at the site matched soil samples found clinging to the artefacts. The disc and its accompanying finds are held by the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
The two looters received sentences of four months and ten months, respectively, from a Naumburg court in September 2003. They appealed, but the Appeals Court raised their sentences to six and twelve months, respectively.
The discovery site is a prehistoric enclosure encircling the top of a {{convert|252|m}} elevation in the Ziegelroda Forest, known as {{lang|de|Mittelberg}} ("central hill"), some {{convert|60|km}} west of Leipzig. The surrounding area is known to have been settled in the Neolithic era, and Ziegelroda Forest contains approximately 1,000 barrows.
At the enclosure's location, the sun seems to set every summer solstice behind the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountains, some {{convert|80|km}} to the northwest. The treasure hunters claimed the artefacts were discovered within a pit inside the bank-and-ditch enclosure.
== Dating == {{See also|Únětice culture|Bronze Age Europe}} [[Image:Nebra Schwerter.jpg|thumb|The swords found with the disc <ref>{{cite web|url=https://i0.wp.com/the-past.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/post-1_image1-52.jpg?ssl=1|website=the-past.com|title=The Nebra Sky Disc: decoding a prehistoric vision of the cosmos|date=25 May 2022}}</ref>]] thumb|Other associated finds: chisel, axeheads, bracelets Axes and swords found buried with the disc were dated typologically to {{circa|1700}}–1500 BCE. Remains of birch bark found in the sword hilts have been Radiocarbon dated to between 1600 and 1560 BCE, confirming this estimate. This corresponds to the date of burial, at which time the disc had likely been in existence for several generations.<ref name="Nebra Sky Disc: Nomination"/> Analyses of metal radioactivity and the corrosion layer on the disc further support the early Bronze Age dating.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky-disc/dating.html |title=Nebra Sky Disc: Dating |website=Halle State Museum of Prehistory}}</ref><ref name="BBC secrets">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2004/stardisctrans.shtml |title=Secrets of the Star Disc |website=BBC Science & Nature |series=''Horizon'' |date=January 2004}}</ref>
== Origin of the metals == 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.<ref>{{cite journal|author1= Pernicka, E.|author2= Wunderlich, C-H.|name-list-style= amp|title=Naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen an den Funden von Nebra|journal=Archäologie in Sachsen-Anhalt|volume=1/02|pages=24–29}}</ref> A more recent analysis found that the gold used in the first development phase (see below) was from the River Carnon in southern Cornwall in England.<ref name=Ehser>{{cite journal |last1=Ehser|first1=Anja |first2=Gregor|last2=Borg |first3=Ernst|last3=Pernicka |title=Provenance of the gold of the Early Bronze Age Nebra Sky Disk, central Germany: geochemical characterization of natural gold from Cornwall |journal=European Journal of Mineralogy |date=2011 |volume=23 |issue=6 |pages=895–910 |doi=10.1127/0935-1221/2011/0023-2140 |url=http://eurjmin.geoscienceworld.org/content/23/6/895.short |access-date=12 November 2013 |bibcode=2011EJMin..23..895E|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The tin present in the bronze was also of Cornish origin.<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2010.00515.x | volume=52 | title=Tin isotopy: a new method for solving old questions | year=2010 | journal=Archaeometry | pages=816–832 | last = Haustein | first = M.| issue=5| bibcode=2010Archa..52..816H }}</ref>
== History == As preserved, the disc was developed in four stages{{citation needed|date=September 2025}}: # Initially the disc had thirty-two small round gold circles, a large circular plate, and a large crescent-shaped plate attached. The circular plate is interpreted as either the Sun or the full Moon, the crescent shape as the crescent Moon (or either the Sun or the Moon undergoing eclipse), and the dots as stars, with the cluster of seven dots likely representing a star cluster. The star cluster is thought to refer to the Pleiades,<ref name="Pernicka et al" /> or possibly the general symbol of a star cluster.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Hoffmann |first=Susanne M |editor-last=Meller |editor-first=Harald |editor2-last=Reichenberger |editor2-first=Alfred |editor3-last=Risch |editor3-first=Roberto |title=Das babylonische Astronomie-Kompendium MUL.APIN: Messung von Zeit und Raum |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360311636 |journal=Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale) |volume=24 |pages=251–275}}</ref> # At some later date, two arcs (constructed from gold of different origins, as shown by their{{citation needed|date=September 2025}} chemical impurities) were added at opposite edges of the disc. To make space for these arcs, one small circle was moved from the left side toward the centre of the disc and two of the circles on the right were covered over, so that thirty remain visible. The two arcs span an angle of 82°, correctly indicating the angle between the positions of sunsets at summer and winter solstice at the latitude of the Mittelberg (51°N).<ref name="McIntosh">{{cite book | title=Lost Treasures; Civilization's Great Riches Rediscovered | publisher=Carlton Books | author=McIntosh, Jane | year=2010 | location=London | pages=16 | isbn=9781847322999}}</ref><ref name="BMworld">{{cite book |oclc= 1297081545|title=The World of Stonehenge|date=June 2022|pages=145–147|publisher=British Museum Press|isbn=9780714123493|last1=Garrow|first1=Duncan|last2=Wilkin|first2=Neil|quote=both the gold arcs [on the Nebra disc] occupy a very precise angle of between 82 and 83 degrees, a figure that is well beyond the error expected if a right angle was intended. The reason for this seems to be connected to observations of the sun. The arcs mark the full range of points on the horizon at which the sun sets and rises in a solar year. The terminal of each arc inscribes the summer solstice sunrise and sunset and the winter solstice sunrise and sunset as seen from the latitude of the Mittelberg 3,600 years ago. ... The marking of solstice sunrise and sunset at monuments such as Stonehenge was about the expression of religious and symbolic ideas linking the monument to the cycles of the cosmos. The same concerns were probably true of the Sky Disc, which had the benefit of being a portable and possesable object.}}</ref> The arcs relate to the Sun's path – the ecliptic. Given that ancient astronomers knew the planets and many stars that mark the ecliptic, they could observe it sweep across the horizon within the arcs, in a single winter night, not just sunrise and sunset over an entire year.<ref>{{cite web |last1=PM 2Ring |title=Where does the ecliptic cross the horizon during the course of a night? |url=https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/57755/where-does-the-ecliptic-cross-the-horizon-during-the-course-of-a-night/57760?noredirect=1#comment132262_57760 |website=astronomy.stackexchange.com |access-date=28 May 2024}}</ref> Thus, the arcs are consistent with wholly nighttime use. # The final addition was another arc at the bottom, identified as a solar boat,<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last1=Bohan |first1=Elise |title=Big History |last2=Dinwiddie |first2=Robert |last3=Challoner |first3=Jack |last4=Stuart |first4=Colin |last5=Harvey |first5=Derek |last6=Wragg-Sykes |first6=Rebecca |last7=Chrisp |first7=Peter |last8=Hubbard |first8=Ben |last9=Parker |first9=Phillip |collaboration=Writers |date=February 2016 |publisher=DK |others=Foreword by David Christian |isbn=978-1-4654-5443-0 |edition=1st American |location=New York |pages=21 |oclc=940282526}}</ref> again made of gold, but originating from a different source. # By the time the disc was buried it also had 38 to 40 holes punched out around its perimeter, each approximately {{convert|3|mm}} in diameter. The exact number is obscured by damage to the disc edge.<ref name="tandfonline.com">{{cite journal|journal=Time and Mind|volume=11|issue=1|title=Morphometric findings on the Nebra Sky Disc|last1=Dathe|first1=Henning|last2=Kruger|first2=Harald|year=2018 |pages=89–104|doi=10.1080/1751696X.2018.1433358|s2cid=165508431|doi-access=free}}</ref>
<gallery> Image:Nebra-1.jpg| 1) On the left the Sun or the Full Moon, on the right the Waxing Moon, and between and above, the Pleiades Image:Nebra-2.jpg| 2) Arcs were added on the horizon for the zones of the rising and setting Sun; individual stars were shifted and/or covered Image:Nebra-3.jpg| 3) Addition of the "solar boat" Image:Nebra-4.jpg| 4) Diagram of the disc in its current condition (a star and a part of the Sun—or Full Moon—have been restored) </gallery>
== Significance == thumb|Video explaining the significance of the sky disc
The Nebra disc may have had both a practical astronomical purpose as well as a religious significance.<ref name="meller2002">{{cite journal |author=Meller, H |date=2002 |title=Die Himmelsscheibe von Nebra – ein frühbronzezeitlicher Fund von außergewohnlicher Bedeutung |journal=Archäeologie in Sachsen-Anhalt |language=de |volume=1/02 |pages=7–30}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
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 older earthworks and megalithic astronomical complexes, such as the Goseck circle (c. 4900 BC) and Stonehenge (c. 2500 BC), had already been used to mark the solstices, the disc presents this knowledge in the form of a portable object.<ref name="BMworld" />
Timber circular enclosures with astronomical alignments were also built by the Únětice culture at Pömmelte and Schönebeck in Germany, dating from c. 2300-1900 BC.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/43296057|title=Der Aufbruch zu neuen Horizonten. NeueSichtweisen zur europäischen Frühbronzezeit|date=2019|editor-last1=Bertemes|editor-first1=F.|editor-last2=Meller|editor-first2=H.|chapter=The enclosure complex Pömmelte–Schönebeck: The dialectic of two circular monuments of the late 3rd to early 2nd millennium BC in Central Germany|last=Spatzier|first=André|publisher=Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle|isbn=9783948618032|pages=421–443}}</ref> According to excavators of the Pömmelte site, close similarities with the layout of Stonehenge indicate that both monuments were built by "the same culture" (the Bell Beaker culture) with "the same view of the world".<ref name="Stonehenge's Continental Cousin">{{Cite web |date=January 2021 |title=Stonehenge's Continental Cousin |url=https://archaeology.org/issues/online/collection/germany-woodhenge/ |website=Archaeology}}</ref> The similarity between Pömmelte and earlier enclosures such as the Goseck Circle may indicate a continuation of traditions dating back to the early Neolithic.<ref>{{cite web |date=June 28, 2018 |title=Rituals performed at this German 'Stonehenge' may link mysterious monument to its U.K. counterpart |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/rituals-performed-german-stonehenge-may-link-mysterious-monument-its-uk-counterpart?et_rid=382659176&et_cid=2143937 |website=Science |quote=}}</ref><ref name="tandfonline.com2">{{cite journal |last1=Dathe |first1=Henning |last2=Kruger |first2=Harald |year=2018 |title=Morphometric findings on the Nebra Sky Disc |journal=Time and Mind |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=89–104 |doi=10.1080/1751696X.2018.1433358 |s2cid=165508431 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
===Society===
The archaeologist Harald Meller has suggested that by the 20th-19th centuries BC, the Únětice culture had developed into a type of early state, ruled by dominant leaders supported by armed troops.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/39283180|title=Princes, Armies, Sanctuaries – The emergence of complex authority in the Central German Únětice culture|date=May 2019|journal=Acta Archaeologica |volume=90|issue=1|pages=39–79|doi=10.1111/j.1600-0390.2019.12188.x|last1=Meller|first1=Harald|s2cid=241149593}}</ref> The creation of the Nebra Disc represented part of this process. It allowed for "an extremely accurate positing of time" and as such represented "the establishment of a new temporal order" by the ruling elite, thereby demonstrating "their claim to state power".<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/39283180|title=Princes, Armies, Sanctuaries – The emergence of complex authority in the Central German Únětice culture|date=May 2019|journal=Acta Archaeologica |volume=90|issue=1|pages=39–79|doi=10.1111/j.1600-0390.2019.12188.x|last1=Meller|first1=Harald|s2cid=241149593}}</ref> The creation of the Disc is thought to be specifically associated with the 'prince' buried in the enormous Bornhöck burial mound in Germany (the largest Bronze Age burial mound in Central Europe) dating from c. 1800 BC.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article157889662/Deutschlands-erste-Fuersten-starben-wie-Pharaonen.html |title=Deutschlands erste Fürsten starben wie Pharaonen |website=welt.de |date=2016 |language=de |trans-title=Germany's first princes died like pharaohs.}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|title=Digital reconstruction of the Bornhock burial mound, {{circa|1800 BC}}|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HVWyUq6UuY&t=1259s|website=Terra X}}</ref>
The archaeologist Euan MacKie suggests that the Nebra Disc and other artefacts such as the Bush Barrow Gold Lozenge from Britain provide evidence for the existence of "a class of astronomer priests" in the Early Bronze Age, which may have already existed in the Neolithic and been responsible for the creation of monuments such as Stonehenge.<ref>{{cite book |author=MacKie, E |url=https://www.academia.edu/11470159 |title=Viewing the Sky Through Past and Present Cultures: Selected Papers from the Oxford VII International Conference on Archaeoastronomy |date=2006 |isbn=1-882572-38-6 |editor=Todd W. Bostwick |series=Pueblo Grande Museum Anthropological Papers |volume=15 |pages=343–362 |chapter=New evidence for a professional priesthood in the European Early Bronze Age? |editor2=Bryan Bates}}</ref>
According to the Musée d'Archaeologie Nationale, the Nebra Disc evokes "a complex society, undoubtedly strictly hierarchical, with advanced technical and astronomical knowledge, organized around work in the fields".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://musee-archeologienationale.fr/collection/objet/cone-davanton|title=Avanton Cone |publisher=Musée d'Archaeologie Nationale, Paris|access-date=8 April 2022 |quote=''Tous ces objets précieux et remarquablement exécutés évoquent une société complexe, sans doute strictement hiérarchisée, aux savoirs techniques et astronomiques avancées, organisée autour des travaux des champs.''" '''English translation:''' "All these precious and remarkably executed objects evoke a complex society, undoubtedly strictly hierarchical, with advanced technical and astronomical knowledge, organized around work in the fields.}}</ref>
===Calendar rule===
The depiction of the Pleiades on the disc in conjunction with a crescent moon is thought to represent a calendar rule for synchronising solar and lunar calendars, enabling the creation of a lunisolar calendar.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archaeology.org/issues/may-june-2019/collection/maps-germany-nebra-sky-disc/mapping-the-past/|title=The Nebra Sky Disc|website=Archaeology|date=June 2019|quote=In the first phase, the disc showed the night sky with 32 gold stars, including the Pleiades, a gold orb representing the sun or a full moon, and a crescent moon. It served as a reminder of when it was necessary to synchronize the lunar and solar years by inserting a leap month. This phenomenon occurred when the three-and-a-half-day-old moon—the crescent moon on the disc—was visible at the same time as the Pleiades. 'The astronomical rules that are depicted wouldn't be imaginable without decades of intensive observation,' says Harald Meller, director of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle. 'Until the Sky Disc was discovered, no one thought prehistoric people capable of such precise astronomical knowledge.'}}</ref> This rule is known from an ancient Babylonian collection of texts with the title MUL.APIN, dating from c. 700 BC.<ref>{{cite web |last=Symonds |first=Matthew |author-link=Matthew Symonds |date=2022-05-25 |title=The Nebra Sky Disc: decoding a prehistoric vision of the cosmos |url=https://the-past.com/feature/the-nebra-sky-disc-decoding-a-prehistoric-vision-of-the-cosmos/ |website=The Past}}</ref> 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. This conjunction occurs approximately every three years.<ref>{{cite book |oclc= 1297081545 |title=The World of Stonehenge |date=June 2022 |pages=145–147 |publisher=British Museum Press |isbn=9780714123493 |last1=Garrow|first1=Duncan |last2=Wilkin|first2=Neil |quote=(on the disc) there is a distinctive rosette of seven stars clustered between the full and crescent moons. These are identified as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters, recognised by many world cultures as calendar stars, since they are last seen in the night sky in March and only reappear again in October. ... The path of the sun provides a measure of the time of day and year, while the moon can do the same in measuring out months and weeks based on its regular cycles. A problem arises, however, when it comes to equating the solar and lunar years. The former is eleven days longer than the later and after three years the difference is equivalent to about a month. To bring the two calendars into harmony a rule is needed. The first written record of such a rule comes from a Babylonian cuneiform tablet dating to the seventh or sixth centuries BC, which advises to add a leap month every third year if no new moon appears next to the Pleiades in the spring but rather a crescent moon a few days old. That arrangement of heavenly bodies is precisely what the Sky Disc seems to show, reflecting an ingenious materialisation of a complex astronomical and calendrical rule without the need for writing.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/80363367|title=Time is power. Who makes time?: 13th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany|chapter=The Nebra Sky Disc – astronomy and time determination as a source of power|last=Meller|first=Harald|date=2021|publisher=Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale).|isbn=978-3-948618-22-3|quote=The synchronisation key of the first phase [of the Nebra disc] allowed the longer solar year (approximately 365 days) to be harmonised with the shorter lunar year (around 354 days). Each year in spring, the crescent moon passed close to the Pleiades, appearing with different widths, depending on the lunar phase. The appearance of a 4.5 day-old crescent moon next to the Pleiades, as shown on the Sky Disc, meant that an extra month should have been added, since the solar and lunar years differed by approximately one month after every three years.}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dlijsmVJ9c&t=694s|title=Concepts of cosmos in the world of Stonehenge (British Museum 2022)|last1=Meller|first1=Harald}}</ref>
Harald Meller suggests that knowledge of this rule may have come from Babylonia to Central Europe through long-distance trade and contacts, despite it being attested earlier on the Nebra disc than in Babylonia.<ref name="Meller 2021">{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/80363367|title=Time is power. Who makes time?: 13th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany|chapter=The Nebra Sky Disc – astronomy and time determination as a source of power|last=Meller|first=Harald|date=2021|publisher=Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale).|isbn=978-3-948618-22-3}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/acar/92/2/article-p228_8.xml |journal=Acta Archaeologica |volume=92 |issue=2 |date=2023 |pages=228–243 |title=Baltic Amber in Aššur. Forms and Significance of Amber Exchange between Europe and the Middle East, c.2000–1300 BC |last1=Bunnefeld |first1=J. |last2=Becker |first2=J. |last3=Martin |first3=L. |last4=Pausewein |first4=R. |last5=Simon |first5=S. |last6=Meller |first6=H. |doi=10.1163/16000390-20210031|s2cid=258250358|url-access=subscription }}</ref> However some Assyriologists and astronomers have rejected the comparison of the Nebra Disc with MUL.APIN.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Feller |first1=Manfred |last2=Koch |first2=Johannes |title=Geheimnis der Himmelsscheibe doch nicht gelöst? Warum die angebliche Entschlüsselung der Himmelsscheibe durch R. Hansen und H. Meller falsch ist |url=http://home.arcor.de/manfred_feller/Himmelsscheibe|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304210010/http://home.arcor.de/manfred_feller/Himmelsscheibe |archive-date=2016-03-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wolfschmidt |first=Gudrun |title=Astronomy in Culture -- Cultures of Astronomy. Astronomie in der Kultur -- Kulturen der Astronomie. Featuring the Proceedings of the Splinter Meeting at the Annual Conference of the Astronomische Gesellschaft, Sept. 14-16, 2021. Nuncius Hamburgensis; Vol. 57. |date=2022 |others=Susanne M. Hoffmann, Susanne M. Hoffmann, Gudrun Wolfschmidt, Tredition GmbH Hamburg |isbn=978-3-347-71293-5 |location=Ahrensburg |oclc=1351570492}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoffmann |first=Susanne |title=Das babylonische Astronomie-Kompendium MUL.APIN: Messung von Zeit und Raum |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360311636 |journal=Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale) |issue=24 |pages=251–275}}</ref>
[[File:Nebra solstice 2.jpg|thumb|Gold strips on the side of the disc mark the summer and winter solstices,<ref name="Meller 2021"/><ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dlijsmVJ9c&t=760s |title=Concepts of cosmos in the world of Stonehenge |website=British Museum |date=2022}}</ref> and the top represents the horizon<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last1=Bohan |first1=Elise |title=Big History |last2=Dinwiddie |first2=Robert |last3=Challoner |first3=Jack |last4=Stuart |first4=Colin |last5=Harvey |first5=Derek |last6=Wragg-Sykes |first6=Rebecca |last7=Chrisp |first7=Peter |last8=Hubbard |first8=Ben |last9=Parker |first9=Phillip |collaboration=Writers |date=February 2016 |publisher=DK |others=Foreword by David Christian |isbn=978-1-4654-5443-0 |edition=1st American |location=New York |page=20 |oclc=940282526}}</ref> and north. This is opposite to modern star charts which are intended to be held aloft and viewed from below, not like geographic maps where we (imagine we can) look down from above.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Moore |first1=Stewart |title=Which way is up? |url=https://britastro.org/2018/which-way-is-up |website=British Astronomical Association |access-date=2025-03-30}}</ref>]]
The number of stars depicted on the disc (32) is also thought to be significant, possibly encoding the calendar rule numerically. Firstly, the conjunction of lunar crescent and Pleiades depicted on the disc occurs after 32 days following the last "new light" (the first visible crescent moon of the month), and not before.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/80363367|title=Time is power. Who makes time?: 13th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany|chapter=The Nebra Sky Disc – astronomy and time determination as a source of power|last=Meller|first=Harald|date=2021|publisher=Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale).|isbn=978-3-948618-22-3|pages=151–152|quote=''Zudem vergehen bei einer 4,5 Tage alten Mondsichel nicht wie üblich 29 oder 30 Tage seit dem letzten Neulicht, sondern 32 Tage. Dies korrespondiert mit den 32 Sternen, die auf der Himmelsscheibe in der ersten Phase abgebildet waren, sodass die Schaltregel wohl sogar doppelt verschlüsselt in diesem auf den ersten Blick simplen Bildwerk dargestellt ist. Das große runde Goldobjekt könnte zugleich Vollmond und Sonne repräsentieren. Die 32 Sterne der ersten Phase verkörpern dann 32 Sonnenjahre, denen – zählt man Vollmond / Sonne hinzu – 33 Mondjahre entsprechen (Hansen 2007).'' '''English translation''': "with a 4.5-day old crescent moon, not 29 or 30 days elapse since the last new light, as is usually the case, but 32 days. This corresponds with the 32 stars that were depicted on the sky disc in the first phase, so that the leap rule is probably even depicted in a doubly coded way in this, at first sight, simple pictorial work. The large round gold object could represent both the full moon and the sun. The 32 stars of the first phase then embody 32 solar years, to which - if one adds the full moon / sun - 33 lunar years correspond (Hansen 2007).}}</ref> Secondly, because a lunar year (354 days) is eleven days shorter than a solar year (365 days), 32 solar years is equal in length to 33 lunar years (with an error of only two days). That is, 32 x 365 = 11680 days, and 33 x 354 = 11682 days.<ref>{{cite web |date=2018 |title=The difference between solar and lunar years |url=https://sciencing.com/difference-between-solar-lunar-years-8513472.html |website=Sciencing.com}}</ref> This 32 solar-year cycle may be represented on the disc by 32 stars, plus the sun (or full moon), adding up to 33.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/80363367|title=Time is power. Who makes time?: 13th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany|chapter=The Nebra Sky Disc – astronomy and time determination as a source of power|last=Meller|first=Harald|date=2021|publisher=Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale).|isbn=978-3-948618-22-3 |pages=151–152}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hansen|first1=Rahlf|last2=Rink|first2=Christine|title=Himmelsscheibe, Sonnenwagen und Kalenderhüte - ein Versuch zur bronzezeitlichen Astronomie|date=2008|journal=Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica|volume=40|url=https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/apa/article/view/71501|pages=97–98}}</ref>
The archaeologist Christoph Sommerfeld has argued that the disc encodes knowledge of the 19-year lunisolar Metonic cycle.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/8821194 |journal=Preaehistorische Zeitschrift |date=2012 |volume=87 |issue=1 |pages=110–131 |doi=10.1515/pz-2012-0006|title=... Sterne mal Sterne durch Sonne ist Mond - Bemerkungen über die Nebra-Scheibe |last=Sommerfeld |first=Christoph|s2cid=163304521}}</ref> According to Sommerfeld the Metonic cycle is similarly encoded on the disc of the Trundholm sun chariot, dating from c. 1500 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/14021967 |journal=Praehistorische Zeitschrift |volume=85 |issue=2 |date=2010 |title=... nach Jahr und Tag – Bemerkungen über die Trundholm-Scheiben |last=Sommerfel |first=Christoph |doi=10.1515/pz.2010.012 |pages=207–242 |s2cid=164902130}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Menghin |first=Wilfried |date=2008 |title=Zahlensymbolik und digitales Rechnersystem in der Ornamentik des Berliner Goldhutes |url=https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/apa/issue/view/5045 |journal=Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica |volume=40 |pages=157–169 |doi=10.11588/apa.2008.0.71505}}</ref>
Some authors have argued that the number of pin holes around the rim of the disc (approximately 38 to 40) has an astronomical significance. The exact number is not known due to damage to the disc.<ref name="tandfonline.com"/><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/37209960 |journal=Archäologische Informationen |volume=41 |date=2018 |title=Functional principles of early time measurement at Stonehenge and Nebra |last1=Herten |first1=Friedel |last2=Waldmann |first2=Georg |pages=275–288}}</ref>
The Nebra Disc has been compared to a passage from the Greek poet Hesiod, written around 700 BC, which describes the role of the Pleiades for organizing the agricultural year: <blockquote> "When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising, begin your harvest, and your ploughing when they are going to set. Forty nights and days they are hidden and appear again as the year moves round, when first you sharpen your sickle. This is the law of the plains, and of those who live near the sea, and who inhabit rich country, the glens and hollows far from the tossing sea,—strip to sow and strip to plough and strip to reap, if you wish to get in all Demeter's fruits in due season, and that each kind may grow in its season."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0020,002:387 |title=Hesiod, ''Works and Days'' (Hes. WD 387) |website=Perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Garrow |first1=Duncan |title=The World of Stonehenge |last2=Wilkin |first2=Neil |date=June 2022 |publisher=British Museum Press |isbn=9780714123493 |pages=145 |oclc=1297081545 |quote=The Greek poet Hesiod, writing in c. 700 BC, noted that '[w]hen the Pleiades rise it is the time to use the sickle, but the plough when they are setting'. Their disappearance and appearance has been seen historically as a marker of the beginning and end of the farming year in Europe [...] In the region of Germany where the disc was found, the Pleiades is last seen in the sky on 10 March, alongside the young, crescent moon. The full moon accompanies the reappearance of the constellation on 17 October. On the disc, the Pleiades is tellingly placed between the crescent and full moons, suggesting an awareness of this celestial rhythm.}}</ref> </blockquote>
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<ref>{{cite thesis |url=https://researchrepository.universityofgalway.ie/entities/publication/df448825-8ce7-4880-ba13-5ad14b3b760a |title=Calendars, feasting, cosmology and identities: later Neolithic-early Bronze Age Ireland in European context |date=2016 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Galway |last1=McVeigh| first1=Thor |pages=233}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/en/periodiques/comptes-rendus-palevol/8/fasc5/rock-carvings-pleiads-sacred-mont-bego-mountain-tende-alpes-maritimes-france |journal=Comptes Rendus Palevol |volume=8| issue=5 |date=2009|pages=461–469 |title=Rock carvings of the Pleiads in the sacred mont Bego mountain, Tende, Alpes-Maritimes, France |last1=Echassoux |first1=Annie |display-authors=etal |doi=10.1016/j.crpv.2009.03.00|doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 }}</ref> and on a 'Calendar Stone' at Leodagger in Austria, a cult site associated with the Únětice culture.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/78853672 |title=PROCEEDINGS PUBLICATIONS OF THE ERBE-SYMPOSIUM |volume=2 |date=2021 |chapter=Targeting celestial bodies – News regarding the “Kalenderstein” (calendar stone) in Leodagger (Lower Austria) |last1=Hager |first1=Helen}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pROaEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22leodagger%22%22Sonnwendberg%22&pg=PT184 |title=Himmelswelten und Kosmovisionen |publisher=Tredition |editor-last1=Wolfschmidt |editor-first1=Gudrun |date=2020 |isbn=9783347024304}}</ref> The Nebra Disc has some similarities to petroglyphs from the Nordic Bronze Age, some of which are thought to have a calendrical meaning.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://web.astronomicalheritage.net/show-entity?identity=96&idsubentity=1 |website=UNESCO Portal to the Heritage of Astronomy |title=Nebra Sky Disc — Bronze Age representation of the sky, Germany}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Gold und Kult der Bronzezeit |publisher=Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg |year=2003 |pages=47| url=https://archive.org/details/goldundkultderbr0000unse/page/46/mode/2up |isbn=3-926982-95-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ilon |first=Gabor |url=https://www.academia.edu/35176394 |title=The Golden Treasure from Szent Vid in Velem |publisher=Archaeolingua |year=2015 |pages=73 |quote=In the Nordic Bronze Age, sets of 7 and 28 appear on the Aspeberget rock carvings, one of which portrays a figure holding a sistrum-like object in its right hand, depicted by twenty-eight cup marks arranged in four rows of seven each. In his study devoted to ancient astronomy, Flemming Kaul suggested that it depicted the four lunar phases and the lunar months}}</ref>
====Find site====
The site on the Mittelberg hill where the Nebra disc was found is thought to have served as an enclosed 'sacred precinct', delimited by earthen ramparts on two sides of the hill. From this location, when the disc is aligned to the north, the upper terminus of the western gold arc points towards the Brocken mountain, where the sun is seen to set on the summer solstice (June 21st). Another distinctive marker on the horizon is the Kulpenberg hill, where the sun sets on May 1st (Beltane), a date also marked by an entrance to the Pömmelte enclosure built by the Únětice culture.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky-disc/the-place-of-discovery.html |title=Nebra Sky Disc: The Place of Discovery |website=Halle State Museum of Prehistory |quote=Another distinctive elevation on the horizon are the Kyffhäuser mountains with the Kulpenberg hill, where the sun is swallowed by the mountain on May 1st. Although this date is not encoded on the Sky Disc, it is known by other cultures as the Beltane or Spring Festival.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Spatzier |first1=Andre |last2=Bertemes |first2=Francois |date=June 2018 |title=The ring sanctuary of Pömmelte, Germany: a monumental, multi-layered metaphor of the late third millennium BC |journal=Antiquity |volume=92 |issue=363 |pages=655–673 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2018.92 |s2cid=165852387 |quote= |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Das Ringheiligtum Pömmelte |url=https://up.picr.de/26171061mi.jpg}}</ref>
===Mythology===
The Nebra disc has been described as "the oldest evidence of a complex mythical world picture in Europe."<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/74223636 |journal=Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle |volume=5 |date=2010 |title=Ein Schiff auf dem Himmelsozean – Zur Deutung des gefiederten Goldbogens auf der Himmelsscheibe von Nebra |last=Maraszek |first=Regine |pages=487–500}}</ref> According to the archaeologist Miranda Aldhouse-Green, the Nebra Disc combines symbols of a religious and mythological nature that were part of a "complex European wide belief system".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2004/stardisctrans.shtml |title=Secrets of the Star Disc |website=BBC Science & Nature |date=2004}}</ref>
====Connections with Greece====
thumb|220x220px|Gold signet ring from Mycenae with similar celestial imagery, fifteenth century BC <ref>{{cite web |url=https://agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/greek-civilization-goldsmithery-gold-signet-ring-with-worship-scene-female-figures-landscape-sun-and-moon-from-mycenae-acropolis-treasure/DAE-90003942 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408033930/https://agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/greek-civilization-goldsmithery-gold-signet-ring-with-worship-scene-female-figures-landscape-sun-and-moon-from-mycenae-acropolis-treasure/DAE-90003942 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2023-04-08 |title= Greek civilization. Gold signet ring with worship scene, female figures, landscape, sun and moon. From Mycenae, Acropolis treasure. Athens, Ethnikó Arheologikó Moussío (National Archaeological Museum) |website=agefotostock}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/44024499 |title=The Materiality of the Sky: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual SEAC Conference, 2014 |date=2016 |chapter=Cosmovisions Put Upon a Disk: Another View of the Nebra Disk |editor-last1=Silva |editor-first1=Fabio |editor-last2=Malville |editor-first2=Kim |editor-last3=Lomsdalen |editor-first3=Tore |editor-last4=Ventura |editor-first4=Frank |publisher=Sophia Centre Press |isbn=978-1907767-09-8 |last=Rappenglück |first=Michael |pages=58}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233530036 |journal=Antiquity |volume=81 |issue=312 |title=An interpretation of the Nebra Disc |last1=Pasztor |first1=Emilia |last2=Roslund |first2=Curt |date=2007 |pages=267–78 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00095168}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/9176986 |title=The Sun in Myth and Art |chapter=The Sun in Greek Culture and Art | publisher=Thames & Hudson |date=1993 |pages=280–293 |last1=Valavanis |first1=Panos |last2=Nagy |first2=Gregory}}</ref> Beneath the sun and moon is a seated female figure holding three opium poppies in her hand, identified as a goddess of nature and fertility, possibly the Minoan poppy goddess, or an early form of the goddess Demeter.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/624904 |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=45 |date=1925 |title='The Ring of Nestor': A Glimpse into the Minoan After-World |last=Evans |first=Arthur |doi=10.2307/624904 |pages=11 |jstor=624904 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015008678354 |s2cid=161114626 |quote=waving lines ... cut off the upper part of the field on the great signet of Mycenae, and contain above their curve a rayed disk and crescent representing the heavenly luminaries. ... the seated Goddess, whose character is there marked by the double-axe as well as by the celestial symbols, holds poppy-heads presented to her by a votary.|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Poppy goddess |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Mythica |last=Trckova-Flamee |first=Alena |date=2005 |quote=The image of the so-called Poppy Goddess appears in pre-Hellenic iconography. She is represented as a large female figurine with raised hands in a gesture of greeting or blessing. [...] A goddess with the same emblems — three poppies — in her hand is depicted also in a gold signet ring from Mycenae. [...] The role of this goddess was correlated together with her attributes — poppies and its effects in a form of opium. [...] The motif of a seated goddess (who was called Demeter) on a throne with poppies in her hand is found on a Greek vase (plate) of the fifth century BCE. There is presently not enough evidence to connect a real name to this so-called Poppy Goddess of the pre-Hellenic period; nevertheless there are links to the Greek pantheon and to a ritual performed, later in honor of the goddess Demeter.}}</ref><ref>{{cite arXiv |title=Evidence of Minoan astronomy and calendrical practices |date=2009 |last=Ridderstad |first=Marianna |class=physics.hist-ph |eprint=0910.4801 |quote=The scene on the ring [from Mycenae] shows the sun, the moon, and what looks like the Milky Way on the sky, as well as the "Poppy Goddess" seated under a tree [...] The poppy flower of the Minoan 'Poppy Goddess' was associated in Classical Greek art with many goddesses, but, especially, it was the symbol of Demeter, who as the great mother and fertility goddess had a cult that had its origin in Minoan-Mycenaean times [...] as the Palaikastro mould shows, the Poppy Goddess was not only a chthonic fertility goddess, but also the goddess of celestial cycles.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223596674 |journal=International Congress Series |volume=1242 |issue=3 |pages=23–29 |date=December 2002 |doi=10.1016/S0531-5131(02)00769-0 |title=Archaeological evidence on the use of opium in the Minoan world |last1=Askitopoulou |first1=Helen |last2=Ramoutsaki |first2=Ioanna A. |last3=Konsolaki |first3=Eleni}}</ref> The gold arcs on the Nebra disc also bear a resemblance to the Minoan double-axe or ''labrys'', which is centrally depicted on the gold signet ring and considered to be the main symbol of the Minoan goddess, as well as a symbol of Demeter.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/44075963 |title=Orientierung, Navigation und Zeitbestimmung – Wie der Himmel den Lebensraum des Menschen prägt. Nuncius Hamburgensis - Beiträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften Band 42. |chapter=Der minoische Kalender – eine Brücke von Babylon nach Nebra |publisher=Tredition |date=2019 |last1=Hansen |first1=Rahlf |last2=Rink |first2=Christine |pages=432–461 |isbn=978-3-7482-1146-4}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/2143502 |title=Athanasia. The Earthly, the Celestial and the Underworld in the Mediterranean from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. N. Ch. Stampolidis, A. Kanta and A. Giannikouri (eds.) |date=2012 |chapter=The Minoan Double Axe Goddess and Her Astral Realm |last1=MacGillivray |first1=Joseph |publisher=MEDITERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY |isbn=978-960-7143-40-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://chs.harvard.edu/primary-source/homeric-hymn-to-demeter-sb/ |website=The Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University |title=Homeric Hymn to Demeter |quote=Demeter ... she of the golden double-axe}}</ref>
According to the archaeologist Kristian Kristiansen, imagery similar to that found on Mycenaean signet rings appears in Nordic Bronze Age petroglyphs from the Kivik King's Grave in Sweden, dating from the 16th to 15th centuries BC, whilst Baltic amber has been found in the elite shaft graves at Mycenae, attesting to connections between both regions.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=di7Dc7Y1ETYC |title=The rise of Bronze Age society |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |last1=Kristiansen |first1=Kristian |last2=Larsson |first2=Thomas B. |isbn=9780521843638|pages=192–193}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kristiansen |first1=Kristian |last2=Suchowska-Ducke |first2=Paulina |date=December 2015 |title=Connected Histories: the Dynamics of Bronze Age Interaction and Trade 1500–1100 bc |journal=Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=81 |pages=361–392 |doi=10.1017/ppr.2015.17 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Baltic amber probably reached Greece via the Únětice culture.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X22004114 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |volume=47 |date=2023 |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103748 |title=First evidence for the forging of gold in an Early Bronze Age Site of Central Europe (2200–1800 BCE) |last1=Müller |first1=Johannes |display-authors=etal |article-number=103748 |bibcode=2023JArSR..47j3748M |quote=The settlement of Bruszczewo, located in a context of a wide network in which, among others, amber and metal were exchanged, could have acted as a key agent in the control and production of some precious raw materials and/or objects at the border of the early metal producing groups. It is very likely that this settlement was a kind of a “gate” through which Baltic amber reached different parts of the Únětice world and, inter alia, could have been transferred to the centre of Únětice settlement in the Czech Basin (Ernée 2012). The amber route to the Mycenaean area probably began here, reaching the southern region during the 18th century BCE (Czebreszuk 2011).}}</ref> Opium poppy has also been found in settlements of the Únětice culture where it may have been used in cult rituals.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/10283430 |title=Carpathian heartlands: studies on the prehistory and history of Transsylvania in European contexts, dedicated to Horia Ciugudean on his 60th birthday |date=2016 |chapter=Food and cooking in the Únětice culture |last=Pokutta |first=Dalia |publisher=Muzeul Naţional al Unirii |editor-last1=Boroffka |editor-first1=Nikolaus |pages=143 |quote=Opium poppy has been identified in Bruszczewo and on several Early Bronze Age sites in Southern Germany}}</ref>
Some researchers have suggested that the Nebra disc was buried after 1600 BC in response to the volcanic eruption on the Minoan island of Thera (Santorini), which devastated the island and created an ash cloud reaching as far as central Europe. This may have darkened the sky for 20 to 25 years, rendering the Nebra disc useless.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.stern.de/panorama/wissen/mensch/himmelsscheibe-von-nebra-warum-das-kultsymbol-entweiht-wurde-3110002.html |title=Warum das Kultsymbol entweiht wurde |website=www.stern.de |date=2010}}</ref>
====Solar boat====
The gold arc at the bottom of the Disc is usually interpreted as a mythological solar boat or sun-ship, which carries the sun through the day and the night.<ref name="Meller 2021"/><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/74223636 |journal=Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle |volume=5 |date=2010 |title=Ein Schiff auf dem Himmelsozean – Zur Deutung des gefiederten Goldbogens auf der Himmelsscheibe von Nebra |last=Maraszek |first=Regine |pages=487–500}}</ref> The short lines on each side of the gold arc may represent the oars of a large crew.<ref name="The World of Stonehenge"/> According to the archaeologist Harald Meller this imagery was "hitherto unknown in Europe" and probably originated in Egypt, possibly reaching Central Europe through wide-ranging contacts and travel.<ref name="Meller 2021"/> In contrast the archaeologist Mary Cahill has argued that sun-ships were already depicted on gold lunulae from the Bell Beaker culture, from which the Únětice culture developed.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cahill |first=Mary |date=Spring 2015 |title=Here comes the sun...: Solar symbolism in Early Bronze Age Ireland |url=https://www.academia.edu/11627053 |journal=Archaeology Ireland |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=26–33 |url-access=registration |via=Academia.edu}}</ref> Solar boats may even be depicted on rock art dating from the Neolithic or earlier, such as at the megalithic sites of Newgrange and Knowth in Ireland.<ref>{{cite thesis |url=https://researchrepository.universityofgalway.ie/entities/publication/df448825-8ce7-4880-ba13-5ad14b3b760a |title=Calendars, feasting, cosmology and identities: later Neolithic-early Bronze Age Ireland in European context |date=2016 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Galway |last1=McVeigh| first1=Thor |pages=167–182}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/36843380 |title=North Meets South: Theoretical Aspects on the Northern and Southern Rock Art Traditions in Scandinavia |chapter=The Circumpolar Context of the 'Sun Ship' Motif in South Scandinavian Rock Art|date=2017 |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-1-78570-820-6 |last=Lahelma |first=Antti |pages=144–171}}</ref>
Solar boats or vessels also appear in later Indo-European traditions: in Latvian folk songs the sun goddess Saulė sleeps through the night in a golden boat, whilst in the Atharvaveda the Sun is twice told ‘O Aditya, thou hast boarded a ship of a hundred oars for well-being’.<ref name="West 2007 207–209">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC |title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199280759 |last=West |first=M.L. |pages=207–209}}</ref> 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.<ref name="West 2007 207–209"/><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/40428177 |journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=47 |date=2019 |title=Antimachus's Enigma: On Erytheia, the Latvian Sun-goddess and a Red Fish |last1=Massetti |first1=Laura |pages=223–240 |quote=synchronic analysis of Greek passages dealing with the journey of Helios reveals that the poetic image of the golden ‘cup, vessel’ hints at the solar boat.}}</ref>
Possibly related artefacts from the later Bronze Age include the ship-like Caergwrle bowl from Wales, which features circular solar symbols embossed in gold.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzh0pnpZudw |title=The World of the Nebra Sky Disc: The Caergwrle Ship |date=2022 |last=Meller |first=Harald |website=Halle State Museum of Prehistory}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1095-9270.1980.tb01296.x|journal=The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology|volume=9|issue=3|date=1980|title=The Caergwrle Bowl���A possible prehistoric boat model|last1=Denford|first1=G.T.|last2=Farrell|first2=A.W.|doi=10.1111/j.1095-9270.1980.tb01296.x|pages=183–192|bibcode=1980IJNAr...9..183D |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Gold bowls from central and northern Europe, such as from the Eberswalde Hoard in Germany, feature similar circular solar symbols and some of these may contain calendrical information, including the equivalence of 32 solar and 33 lunar years possibly depicted on the Nebra Disc.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Life and Belief During the Bronze Age" Neues Museum, Berlin |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/story/DAVRgpAwHmLsLw?hl=en |access-date=13 March 2022 |quote=Gold vessels in the Eberswalde hoard bear sun and circular symbols like those on the Berlin gold hat. Some of these contain calendrical information as well. The base of a bowl [from the Eberswalde hoard] is formed from ten, or counting the centre disc, eleven concentric circles topped by a band of 22 circular discs. This corresponds to the number of solar years (10+22=32) and together with the centre disc the number of lunar years (11+22=33) until the solar and lunar calendars are in alignment.}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVneygj8t2Y&t=3741s |title=The Sky Disc of Nebra: A window to the Bronze Age world in Europe and beyond. (Ernst Pernicka) |date=2022 |website=HEAS}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/8318384 |title=Der Himmel über Tübingen |date=2014 |publisher=tredition GmbH |editor-last=Wolfschmidt |editor-first=Gudrun |chapter=Die Zahlenkombination 32/33 als Indikator für einen plejadengeschalteten Lunisolarkalender |last1=Hansen |first1=Rahlf |last2=Rink |first2=Christine |pages=401–431 |isbn=978-3-7323-1896-4}}</ref> Circular solar symbols also appear on a hoard of nearly one hundred miniature gold boats from Nors in Denmark, dating from 1700-1100 BC.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx_lxoNwpBo |title=The World of the Nebra Sky Disc: The Nors Boats |date=2022 |website=Halle State Museum of Prehistory}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://the-past.com/feature/the-nebra-sky-disc-decoding-a-prehistoric-vision-of-the-cosmos/ |title=The Nebra Sky Disc: decoding a prehistoric vision of the cosmos |date=2022 |website=thepast.com}}</ref>
Numerous depictions of solar boats appear in Nordic Bronze Age art dating from circa 1600 BC onwards, often in the form of petroglyphs or engraved images on bronze razors.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310773387 |title=Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age |chapter=The Sky Disc of Nebra |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |last=Meller |first=Harald |pages=266–269}}</ref> Some petroglyphs show figures performing backward bends or backward leaps over ships, and a bronze figurine depicts a female in a similar pose. The archaeologist Rune Iversen has connected these to similar depictions from Egypt, which show backward-bend dances performed for the goddess Hathor.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Iversen |first=Rune |date=2014 |title=Bronze Age acrobats: Denmark, Egypt, Crete |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00438243.2014.886526 |url-status=live |journal=World Archaeology |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=242–255 |doi=10.1080/00438243.2014.886526 |s2cid=162668376 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211219122033/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00438243.2014.886526 |archive-date=19 December 2021 |access-date=19 December 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In Minoan frescoes from Crete and at Avaris in Egypt figures are similarly shown performing backward leaps over bulls. According to Iversen this shared imagery forms part of "the manifold exchange of cultural ideas and beliefs that took place among Egypt, the Aegean and Central and Northern Europe during the second and first millennium BC."<ref name=":4" />
The Nordic depictions may be related to a later account from the Roman historian Tacitus, who stated that the Germanic Suebi worshipped the goddess Isis in the form of a ship.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0083%3Achapter%3D9 |website=perseus.tufts.edu |title=Tacitus, Germania. 9}}</ref> Isis was equated with Hathor from the New Kingdom onwards, and both goddesses were associated with the solar barque (the Egyptian solar boat).<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1n8eAAAAIAAJ |title=Hathor and Thoth |publisher=Leiden |date=1973 |pages=73 |last=Bleeker |first=C.J.|isbn=90-04-03734-9 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wilkinson |first=Richard H. |author-link=Richard H. Wilkinson |url=https://archive.org/details/completegodsgodd00wilk_0 |title=The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-500-05120-7 |pages=148–149, 160}}</ref> Both were also identified with the goddess Demeter by the later Greeks.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://topostext.org/work/133 |title=Diodorus Siculus, Library, 1.13.1 |quote=Isis is more similar to Demeter than to any other goddess |website=ToposText.org}}</ref>
The historians Joseph S. Hopkins and Haukur Þorgeirsson have connected Tacitus' 'Isis of the Suebi' with the Norse goddess Freyja, arguing for a strong association between Freyja and ship imagery within Old Norse texts, and particularly with the stone ships of Scandinavia.<ref>{{cite journal| url=https://www.academia.edu/1825953| journal=RMN Newsletter |date=2011 |title=The Ship in the Field |last1=Hopkins |first1=Joseph S. |last2=Þorgeirsson |first2=Haukur|pages=14–18}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Arrhenius |first=Birgit |url=https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A285966&dswid=-3623 |title=Glaube, Kult und Herrschaft |date=2009 |publisher=Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH |pages=219–230 |chapter=Brisingamen and the Menet necklace |quote=This article discusses the jewellery worn by the goddess Freyja, the ''Brisingamen''. ... its origin may have been the ''Menet'' (alternatively ''Menat'' or ''Menit'') – originally the necklace of the cow god Hathor which in the Greco-Roman time was taken over by the fertility goddess Isis.}}</ref> Both Freyja and her twin brother Freyr have characteristics associated with solar gods,<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Wang |first=Lan |date=2017 |title=Freyja and Freyr: Successors of the Sun |url=https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/57994?show=full |degree=Masters |publisher=University of Oslo|pages=34–38}}</ref> including the golden ship ''Skíðblaðnir'' belonging to Freyr, which may represent a solar boat.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Wang |first=Lan |title=Freyja and Freyr: Successors of the Sun |date=2017 |degree=Masters |publisher=University of Oslo |url=https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/57994?show=full |pages=14, 37}}</ref>
====Twin gods====
According to Kristian Kristiansen the pairs of swords, axes and spiral bracelets deposited with the Nebra Disc represent the mythological Divine Twins, later known as the Dioscuri in Greece, the Ašvieniai in Lithuania, Ashvins in India, or Alcis in Germany, among other Indo-European traditions.<ref name="Kristiansen 2011">{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/1133755 |title=InterweavIng worlds: Systemic Interactions in Eurasia, 7th to 1st Millennia BC |chapter=Bridging India and Scandinavia: Institutional Transmission and Elite Conquest during the Bronze Age |date=2011 |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-1-84217-998-7 |last=Kristiansen |first=Kristian |quote=the twin swords and axes in the Nebra hoard correspond to a widely shared ritual tradition of such depositions, which are the material correlates of the Divine Twins in Bronze Age ritual. This idea is further supported by the Nebra disc that links the Divine Twins (twin axes and swords) and the sun cult together, and thus confirms their intimate relation. ... The replay of this myth is testified in Nordic Bronze Age iconography, rock art and bronze figurines dating from 1700 to 500 BC ... [the Divine Twins] are also said to represent the morning and evening star, and the twin stars in the constellation of Gemini. This constellation, which belongs in the winter sky, could possibly be identified in the lower part of the Nebra disc, as it consists of 8 stars in a formation much like what we see on the disc.}}</ref> Similar depositions are known from a number of other Bronze Age burials. Kristiansen further suggests that the constellation of Gemini, which is associated with the Dioscuri, might be represented in the lower part of the Disc next to the solar boat.<ref name="Kristiansen 2011" /> The Divine Twins are also thought to be represented in Nordic Bronze Age iconography, rock art and bronze figurines, where they often appear in association with ships.<ref name="Kristiansen 2011" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Vandkilde |first1=Helle |url=https://www.academia.edu/5116264 |title=Vandkilde 2013: "Bronze Age Voyaging and Cosmologies in the Making: The Helmets from Viksö revisited"}}</ref>
Some ancient Greek and Roman authors, such as Diodorus Siculus and Tacitus, specifically linked worship of the Divine Twins to northern peoples.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/diodorus_siculus/4c*.html |title= Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book IV, chapter 56 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~wstevens/history331texts/barbarians.html |title=Tacitus' ''Germania'' |website=richmond.edu |quote=The Naharvali proudly point out a grove associated with an ancient worship. The presiding priest dresses like a woman; but the deities are said to be the counterpart of our Castor and Pollux. This indicates their character, but their name is the Alci. There are no images, and nothing to suggest that the cult is of foreign origin; but they are certainly worshipped as young men and as brothers.}}</ref> In his description of a journey made by the Argonauts from the Black Sea up to the northern ocean, Diodorus writes:
{{blockquote|"the Celts who dwell along the ocean venerate the Dioscori above any of the gods, since they have a tradition handed down from ancient times that these gods appeared among them coming from the ocean. Moreover, the country which skirts the ocean bears, they say, not a few names which are derived from the Argonauts and the Dioscori."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/diodorus_siculus/4c*.html |title= Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book IV, chapter 56 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref>}}
The archeologist Timothy Darvill has suggested a connection between the Nebra Disc and its associated paired objects with the trilithons at Stonehenge, which may also represent an early form of the Divine Twins.<ref name=":3">{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dlijsmVJ9c&t=2765s |title=Concepts of cosmos in the world of Stonehenge |date=2023 |website=British Museum Events}}</ref> According to Darvill the central trilithon of Stonehenge 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."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Darvill |first=Timothy |title=Houses of the holy: Architecture and meaning in the structure of Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK |journal=Time and Mind |volume=9 |issue=2 |date=2016 |pages=89–121 |doi=10.1080/1751696X.2016.1171496 |s2cid=164201703 |url= https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1751696X.2016.1171496 |quote=each of the trilithons could be considered conjoined deities, pairs of gods, or an early form of the Divine Twins born at the same time from a single union (Darvill 2006, 144–145). The Great Trilithon to the southwest is the largest and most prominent. It is set astride the principal axis and might cautiously be identified with 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.|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |url=https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/32226/1/GRIGSBY,%20John_Ph.D._2018.pdf |title=Skyscapes, Landscapes, and the drama of Proto-Indo-European myth |last=Grigsby |first=John |publisher=Bournemouth University |date=2018 |degree=PhD| pages=278-279}}</ref>
In ancient Greece Apollo and Artemis were associated with the sun and the moon respectively, whilst the Pleiades were known as 'the companions of Artemis', echoing the depiction on the Nebra Disc.<ref name=":3" /> According an account recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus, ancient Egyptians maintained that Apollo and Artemis were the children of Isis, equivalent to the gods Horus and Bubastis, and that Isis was the same as Demeter.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D156 |website=perseus.tufts.edu |title=Herodotus, ''Histories'', 2.156 |quote=Apollo and Artemis were (they say) children of Dionysus and Isis, and Leto was made their nurse and preserver; in Egyptian, Apollo is Horus, Demeter Isis, Artemis Bubastis. It was from this legend and no other that Aeschylus son of Euphorion took a notion which is in no poet before him: that Artemis was the daughter of Demeter.}}</ref> In antiquity Apollo was also equated with the Celtic god Belenus, whose associated festival of Beltane was apparently marked by the Pömmelte enclosure in Germany.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Schrijver|first=Peter|year=1999|title=On Henbane and Early European Narcotics|journal=Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie|volume=51|issue=1|pages=17–45|doi=10.1515/zcph.1999.51.1.17|s2cid=162678252 |issn=1865-889X|author-link=Peter Schrijver}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/43296057|title=Der Aufbruch zu neuen Horizonten. NeueSichtweisen zur europäischen Frühbronzezeit|date=2019|editor-last1=Bertemes|editor-first1=F.|editor-last2=Meller|editor-first2=H.|chapter=The enclosure complex Pömmelte–Schönebeck: The dialectic of two circular monuments of the late 3rd to early 2nd millennium BC in Central Germany|last=Spatzier|first=André|publisher=Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle|isbn=9783948618032|pages=421–443}}</ref>
====Serpent==== thumb|Detail of one of the swords buried with the Nebra disc
One of the swords buried with the Nebra disc features an undulating linear form inlaid with copper on the midrib of the blade which may represent a three-headed snake or serpent.<ref name=":5" /> Harald Meller suggests the sword would have allowed the 'prince' who bore it to present himself as a "snake-conquering hero", which Meller relates to the myth of Heracles strangling snakes as an infant.<ref name=":5">{{cite book |url=https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781803279213 |title=Bronzization: Essays in Bronze Age Archaeology |chapter=Chapter 24: The prince and the myth of the serpent – Some new thoughts on the origin of Nordic Bronze Age mythology within the Nebra hoard |date=2025 |publisher=Archaeopress |editor1-last=Nørgaard |editor1-first=Heide |editor2-last=Reiter |editor2-first=Samantha |last=Meller |first=Harald |pages=313-322 |isbn=9781803279220 |doi=10.32028/9781803279213}}</ref> Serpent-slaying myths, often featuring a three-headed serpent, are common in Indo-European mythologies and share a proto-Indo-European origin.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://dn720002.ca.archive.org/0/items/indo-european-poetry-and-myth/Indo-European%20Poetry%20and%20Myth.pdf |title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199280759 |last=West |first=M.L. |pages=255-259}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mallory |first1=James P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tF5wAAAAIAAJ |title=The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World |last2=Adams |first2=Douglas Q. |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-929668-2 |location=Oxford, England |pages=436–437}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/EncyclopediaOfIndoEuropeanCulture/page/n607/mode/2up |title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture |publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn |date=1997 |editor1-last=Mallory |editor1-first=J.P. |editor2-last=Adams |editor2-first=D.Q. |page=579}}</ref> Examples include Thor slaying Jörmungandr, Zeus slaying Typhon, and Indra slaying Vritra. A slightly altered version also appears in the myth of Apollo slaying Python before establishing his oracle at Delphi.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://dn720002.ca.archive.org/0/items/indo-european-poetry-and-myth/Indo-European%20Poetry%20and%20Myth.pdf |title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199280759 |last=West |first=M.L. |pages=258}}</ref>
===Connections with Britain===
Archaeoastronomist Emília Pásztor has argued against a practical astronomical function for the disc. According to Pásztor "the close agreement of the length of the peripheral arcs with the movement of the sun's risings or settings might be a pure coincidence".<ref>{{Citation | first = Emilia | last = Pásztor | editor-last = Ruggles | editor-first = Clive L. N. | chapter = Nebra Disk | title = Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy | date = 2015 | pages = 1349–1356 | place = New York | publisher = Springer Science+Business Media | doi = 10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_128 | isbn = 978-1-4614-6140-1}}</ref> This claim is undermined by the finding of a similar feature on the roughly contemporary gold lozenge from Bush Barrow at Stonehenge, where the acute angles of the overall design (81°) correspond to the angle between the solstices at the latitude of Stonehenge.<ref>{{cite AV media|title=Stonehenge's Richest Man: The Bush Barrow Chieftain (British Museum 2022)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j47p5n5rF6Y|quote=The point at the top and the bottom [of the Bush Barrow gold lozenge] has a very precise angle of 81 degrees. That's the same angle between where the sun rises at midwinter and midsummer solstices, so it has an astronomical importance. And the very finely detailed embossed decoration, particularly around the outer border, is laid out to a tolerance of less than half a millimetre. What that tells us is they understood astronomy, geometry and mathematics, 4,000 years ago.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal=Time and Mind|volume=11|issue=1|title=Morphometric findings on the Nebra Sky Disc|last1=Dathe|first1=Henning|last2=Kruger|first2=Harald|year=2018 |pages=89–104|doi=10.1080/1751696X.2018.1433358|s2cid=165508431 |quote=The potential observation of the horizon arc described by the Sun during its annual motion is exemplified by another impressive find from the Early Bronze Age: A diamond-shaped gold plaque of extraordinary quality was excavated in a burial under Bush Barrow in Wiltshire, southern England, less than a mile away from Stonehenge. ... Both objects, the Nebra Sky Disc and the Bush Barrow Lozenge, are unique in their appearance, but they may be related in their ritual and possibly astronomical relevance.|doi-access=free}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/10771931|title=The Prehistoric Solar Calendar: An Out-of-fashion Idea Revisited with New Evidence|date=March 2009|journal=Time and Mind |volume=2|issue=1|pages=9–46|doi=10.2752/175169709X374263|last1=MacKie|first1=Euan|s2cid=162360353 |quote=Ker and his colleagues found the pair of acute angles of the basic diamond pattern [of the Bush Barrow lozenge] to be 81°. They realized that this was the angle between midsummer and midwinter sunrises (and sunsets of course) on a low horizon at the latitude of Stonehenge (51.17° N) four thousand years ago. ... The Nebra disc and the Bush Barrow lozenge both seem to be designed to reflect the annual solar cycle at about latitude 51° north, and both have elements in their design which could refer specifically to the solar calendar.}}</ref>
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.<ref name="MacKie2006">{{cite book|author=MacKie, E|date=2006|chapter=New evidence for a professional priesthood in the European Early Bronze Age?|title=Viewing the Sky Through Past and Present Cultures: Selected Papers from the Oxford VII International Conference on Archaeoastronomy|editor=Todd W. Bostwick|editor2=Bryan Bates|series= Pueblo Grande Museum Anthropological Papers |volume=15|publisher=City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department|pages=343–362|isbn=1-882572-38-6}}</ref> Both the Nebra sky disc and Bush Barrow lozenge were made with gold from Cornwall, providing a direct link between them.<ref name=Ehser /><ref>{{Cite web|date=2019|title=Where did the gold from the time of Stonehenge come from? Analysing the Bush Barrow dagger|url=https://www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk/news-articles/bush-barrow-dagger-gold-studs/|access-date=26 April 2022|website=Wiltshire Museum}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/17283618|title=Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.-21. Februar 2005|chapter=Von Troja an die Saale, von Wessex nach Mykene – Chronologie, Fernverbindungen und Zinnrouten der Frühbronzezeit Mittel- und Westeuropas|last=Gerloff|first=Sabine|editor-last1=Meller|editor-first1=Harald|editor-last2=Bertemes|editor-first2=Francois|date=2010|publisher=Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt – Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale)|isbn=978-3-939414-28-5|pages=603–639|quote=This phase also includes the hoard of Nebra with its famous disc showing gold-plated heavenly bodies. Its plating technique is generally connected to Mycenaean metalwork. It will be shown, however, that this technique together with that of metal inlay had its origins in Britain, where it was already applied to organic material during the first phase of the Early Bronze Age, and flourished during the second and third phases when it was introduced on the continent and used on prestige metalwork.}}</ref>
== Authenticity ==
There were some initial suspicions that the disc might be an archaeological forgery. Peter Schauer of the University of Regensburg, Germany, argued in 2005 that the Nebra disc was a fake and that he could prove that the patina of the disc could have been created with urine, hydrochloric acid, and a blow torch within a short amount of time. He had to admit in court that he had never held the disc in his own hands, unlike the eighteen scientists who had examined the disc.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.faz.net/s/RubCD175863466D41BB9A6A93D460B81174/Doc~E4115FE522E3C4CDD89890E5C3B4A9106~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html|title=Himmelsscheibe von Nebra - Eine Komödie der Irrungen|date=March 17, 2005|publisher=Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung |language=de|access-date=2010-05-12}}</ref> Scientific analyses of the patina (or corrosion layer) have since confirmed its authenticity.<ref name="BBC secrets" />
Richard Harrison, professor of European prehistory at the University of Bristol, stated in a BBC documentary that "When I first heard about the Nebra Disc I thought it was a joke, indeed I thought it was a forgery", due to the extraordinary nature of the find, although he had not seen the sky disc at the time. The same documentary presented scientific analyses confirming the authenticity of the disc.<ref name="BBC secrets" />
A paper published in 2020 by Rupert Gebhard and Rudiger Krause questioned the Early Bronze Age dating of the Nebra disc and proposed a later Iron Age date instead.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/70640900|journal=Archäologische Informationen|volume=43|date=2020|title=Critical comments on the find complex of the so-called Nebra Sky Disk|last1=Gebhard|first1=Rupert|last2=Krause|first2=Rüdiger|pages=325–346|doi=10.11588/ai.2020.1}}</ref> A response paper was published in the same year by Ernst Pernicka and colleagues, rejecting the arguments of Gebhard and Krause.<ref name="Pernicka et al" /> Scientific analyses of the disc, the items found with the disc, and the find spot have all confirmed the Early Bronze Age dating.<ref name="Halle" /><ref name="oeaw.ac.at"/>
== Exhibition == The disc was the centre of an exhibition entitled {{lang|de|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.
On 21 June 2007, a multimedia visitor centre was opened near the discovery site at Nebra.<ref>{{cite web |title=Arche Nebra Visitor Centre |url=https://iart.ch/en/work/arche-nebra |publisher=i art |access-date=17 June 2024}}</ref>
The disc is part of the permanent exhibition in the Halle State Museum of Prehistory (Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte) in Halle.
The disc was on display at the British Museum in London as part of ''The World Of Stonehenge Exhibition'' from 17 February to 17 July 2022.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2021-10-17|title=Nebra Sky Disc: British Museum to display world's 'oldest map of stars'|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58946633|access-date=2021-10-18}}</ref> The disc was on display at the Drents Museum in Assen from 6 August to 18 September 2022.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nebra Sky Disc|language=en|url=https://drentsmuseum.nl/en/exhibitions/nebra-sky-discaccess-date=2022-9-1}}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>
== Replica on the ISS == 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. Maurer, who was part of the European mission Cosmic Kiss, designed the mission's patch with inspiration from the Nebra Sky Disk, as well as the Pioneer plaques and Voyager Golden Records that were sent into the unknown carrying messages from Earth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cosmic Kiss takes the Nebra Sky Disc to space |url=https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Cosmic_kiss/Cosmic_Kiss_takes_the_Nebra_Sky_Disc_to_space |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331232859/https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Cosmic_kiss/Cosmic_Kiss_takes_the_Nebra_Sky_Disc_to_space |archive-date=31 March 2022 |website=European Space Agency}}</ref>
== Legal issues == thumb|Replica of the find situation of the Nebra Sky Disc for the German exhibition {{lang|de|Der geschmiedete Himmel}} (German "The forged sky") The state of Saxony-Anhalt registered the disc as a trademark, which resulted in two lawsuits. In 2003, Saxony-Anhalt successfully sued the city of Querfurt for depicting the disc design on souvenirs. Saxony-Anhalt also successfully sued the publishing houses Piper and Heyne over an abstract depiction of the disc on book covers.<ref>Himmelsscheibe von Nebra {{cite web |url=http://www.kalkriese.de/Himmelsscheibe_von_Nebra.html |title=Himmelsscheibe von Nebra |language=de |access-date=2009-11-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719051336/http://www.kalkriese.de/Himmelsscheibe_von_Nebra.html |archive-date=2011-07-19}}</ref> The Magdeburg court assessed the case's relevance according to German copyright law.
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. The plaintiff, on the other hand, argued that the {{lang|la|editio princeps}} of the disc is recent, and according to German law protected for 25 years, until 2027. Another argument concerned the question of whether a notable work of art may be registered as a trademark in the first place. The Magdeburg court decided in favour of the State of Saxony-Anhalt.
The case was appealed and on the basis of decisions from the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf in 2005 and the Federal Court of Justice in 2009, the initial ruling was overturned and the German Patent and Trademark Office withdrew the trademark rights.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rechtsanwaltmoebius.de/urteile/DPMA_30507066_Marke_Himmelsscheibe-von-Nebra.pdf |website=Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt Dienststell Jena |title=Aktenzeichen: 305 07 066 - S 216/09 Lösch | date=27 July 2010}}</ref> Thereafter, the state of Saxony-Anhalt registered the design of the disc as a trademark with the European Union Intellectual Property Office.<ref>{{cite web |website=European Union Intellectual Property Office |title=Himmelsscheibe von Nebra |url=https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/trademarks/009533423 |access-date=4 August 2022 |date=6 May 2011}}</ref>
In 2023, the state of Saxony-Anhalt filed a DMCA take down notice requesting removal of nine images of the Nebra sky disc from Wikimedia Commons, asserting that they were the "owner of the exclusive copyright in the Sky Disk of Nebra".<ref>{{cite web |author1=Nordemann Czychowski & Partner |title=Notice of Copyright Violation (DMCA Takedown Notice) |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/8/80/DMCA_Nebra_Sky_Disc.pdf |access-date=24 October 2023}}</ref> Wikimedia Deutschland, a chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, subsequently filed a DMCA counter-notice stating that since the implementation of Article 14 of the Directive 2019/790 of the European Parliament, there can be no such copyrights on reproductions of visual works that are in the public domain.<ref>{{cite web |author=Wikimedia Deutschland |title=Counternotice to the DMCA 512(c) notice filed by Nordemann Czychowski & Partner Rechtsanwältinnen und Rechtsanwälte mbB (ref.: LARC60105) Oct 13th 2023 on behalf of the German State of Saxony-Anhalt regarding depictions of the Sky Disc of Nebra |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/8/82/DMCA_Nebra_Sky_Disc_counter-notice.pdf |access-date=24 October 2023}}</ref>
==Gallery== <gallery widths="180" heights="120"> File:Himmelsscheibe von Nebra - Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle - HD.jpg|Photo of the Nebra disc on display at the Halle State Museum of Prehistory File:Beifund.Himmelsscheibe.P1034161.jpg|Swords and other finds buried with the disc File:Nebra Sky Disc and Sky Simulation at Winter Solstice Dawn.png|The Sky Disc at dawn near winter solstice<ref>{{cite web |url=https://dcwalley.com/sky-disc/ |title=Simulation and procedure of using disc to declare intercalary months.}}</ref> File:Path of Vega at winter solstice.png|Path of Vega at winter solstice, as seen from 51°N </gallery>
== See also == * {{Annotated link |Bush Barrow}} *Bell Beaker culture * {{Annotated link |Golden hat}} * {{Annotated link |Rillaton Barrow}} * {{Annotated link |Mold gold cape}} * {{Annotated link |Trundholm sun chariot}} * {{Annotated link |Tumulus culture}} * {{Annotated link |Antikythera mechanism}} * {{Annotated link |Tal-Qadi Temple}} – The Tal-Qadi Sky Tablet
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == * Ute Kaufholz: {{lang|de|Sonne, Mond und Sterne. Das Geheimnis der Himmelsscheibe.}} Anderbeck, Anderbeck 2004, {{ISBN|3-937751-05-X}} * Landesamt für Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt (Hrsg.): {{lang|de|Archäologie in Sachsen-Anhalt.}} Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften, Halle 1.2002, S.7–31. {{ISSN|0072-940X}} * Frank Hagen von Liegnitz: {{lang|de|Die Sonnenfrau}}. Weihnachtsgabe der WeserStrom Genossenschaft, Bremen 2002. * Harald Meller (Hrsg.): {{lang|de|Der geschmiedete Himmel. Die weite Welt im Herzen Europas vor 3600 Jahren.}} Ausstellungskatalog. Theiss-Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, {{ISBN|3-8062-1907-9}} * Katja Näther, Sven Näther: {{lang|de|Akte Nebra – Keine Sonne auf der Himmelsscheibe?}} Naether, Wilhelmshorst 2004, {{ISBN|3-934858-02-3}} * ''National Geographic Deutschland''. Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 2004,1, S.38–61, {{ISBN|3-936559-85-6}} * Uwe Reichert: {{lang|de|Der geschmiedete Himmel.}} in: {{lang|de|Spektrum der Wissenschaft.}} Heidelberg 2004,11, S.52–59. {{ISSN|0170-2971}} * Ch. Sommerfeld : ...Sterne mal Sterne durch Sonne ist Mond - Bemerkungen über die Nebra-Scheibe, {{lang|de|Praehistorische Zeitschrift}}, 87(1) 2012, S. 110–131. {{ISSN|1613-0804}} *Andreas Müller-Karpe, {{lang|de|Die Himmelsscheibe von Nebra und ihre anatolischen Bezüge}}, Marburg 2021, {{ISBN|978-3-8185-0563-9}}.
== External links == {{Spoken Wikipedia|Nebra_sky_disc.ogg|date=2019-7-26}} {{Commons category|Nebra sky disk}} * [http://www.physorg.com/news11357.html Study: Bronze disk is astronomical clock], United Press International, 2 March 2006. * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6722953.stm Calendar question over star disc], BBC News, 25 June 2007. * {{in lang|de}} Wolfhard Schlosser, {{lang|de|[https://web.archive.org/web/20160920031937/http://www.astronomie.de/bibliothek/artikel-und-beitraege/himmelsscheibe-von-nebra/ein-frueher-blick-des-menschen-ins-universum/ Die Himmelsscheibe von Nebra – ein früher Blick des Menschen ins Universum]}} (astronomie.de) * {{in lang|de}} Norbert Gasch, {{lang|de|[https://web.archive.org/web/20160716221950/http://www.astronomie.de/bibliothek/artikel-und-beitraege/himmelsscheibe-von-nebra/eine-astronomische-interpretation Eine vollständig astronomische Interpretation]}}, 17 May 2005 (astronomie.de) * [https://dcwalley.com/sky-disc/ Simulation and procedure] of using disc to declare intercalary months.
{{Portal bar|Astronomy|Stars|Outer space|Solar System}} {{Authority control}}
Category:17th-century BC works Category:1999 archaeological discoveries Category:Archaeoastronomy Category:Archaeological discoveries in Germany Category:Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt Category:Art discs and ovals Category:Bronze Age art Category:Bronze Age Germany Category:Bronze objects Category:Burgenlandkreis Category:Forgery controversies Category:Halle State Museum of Prehistory Category:Archaeological artifacts Category:Memory of the World Register Category:Moon in art Category:Sun in art Category:Unetice culture Category:Ancient art in metal