I visited an interesting exhibit last week in Mannheim of the Sky Disk of Nebra. I wanted to get there before the exhibit ended on Sunday. This bronze disk, dating from 1600 B.C., was found by grave robbers back in the late 1990's. It is the oldest representation of the heavens found to date and was most likely used by Bronze Age cult leaders to determine the times of the summer and winter solstices, as well as the best time for planting and harvest and calculating a "leap" month. The disk is the centerpiece of an exhibition entitled "Der Geschmiedete Himmel" or "The Forged Heavens", which has a duality of meaning in English not present in the German. The disk was indeed controversial soon after the discovery came to light, as some experts deemed it a forgery. Carbon dating of some wood found with the 2 swords found in the same dig as the disk date the find to 1600 B.C., and radioactive dating of the copper present in the disk have deemed it at least older than 100 years, which overrules a modern forgery. In my opinon, it is the genuine article. Another interesting archaeological find here in Germany was the sun observatory Goseck, located only about 25km from the sky disk find. This observatory has been called the oldest ritual site in Europe; indeed, it dates from 4900 B.C., making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian Pyramids. It is essentially a macro-version of the sky disk, with openings letting in light from the sunrise and sunset of both the summer and winter solstices.
I visited an interesting exhibit last week in Mannheim of the Sky Disk of Nebra. I wanted to get there before the exhibit ended on Sunday. This bronze disk, dating from 1600 B.C., was found by grave robbers back in the late 1990's. It is the oldest representation of the heavens found to date and was most likely used by Bronze Age cult leaders to determine the times of the summer and winter solstices, as well as the best time for planting and harvest and calculating a "leap" month. The disk is the centerpiece of an exhibition entitled "Der Geschmiedete Himmel" or "The Forged Heavens", which has a duality of meaning in English not present in the German. The disk was indeed controversial soon after the discovery came to light, as some experts deemed it a forgery. Carbon dating of some wood found with the 2 swords found in the same dig as the disk date the find to 1600 B.C., and radioactive dating of the copper present in the disk have deemed it at least older than 100 years, which overrules a modern forgery. In my opinon, it is the genuine article. Another interesting archaeological find here in Germany was the sun observatory Goseck, located only about 25km from the sky disk find. This observatory has been called the oldest ritual site in Europe; indeed, it dates from 4900 B.C., making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian Pyramids. It is essentially a macro-version of the sky disk, with openings letting in light from the sunrise and sunset of both the summer and winter solstices.
Comments