Nebra sky disc
Disco celeste de Nebra (instrumento calendárico)
- Date
- c. 1600 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Nebra (Mittelberg), Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
- Credited to
- Únětice culture
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A 32 cm bronze disc with the Sun, Moon, Pleiades and horizon arcs in gold, encoding the solstice points and a rule for intercalating a lunar month. It is the oldest known concrete representation of the cosmos and evidence of calendrical astronomy in pre-literate Europe.
Authenticity and dating (c. 1600 BCE for the deposit) were questioned in 2020 by Gebhard and Krause, who proposed the Iron Age; most researchers maintain the Early Bronze Age date.
What it led to
- Proof that European Bronze Age elites possessed imported or independently developed astronomical knowledge comparable to Mesopotamia's
- Exchange networks for Cornish gold and Alpine copper showing an interconnected Europe
- Local lunisolar calendars for fixing sowing and ceremonies
Built on
- Goldworkingc. 4500 BCE
- Tin bronzec. 3200 BCE
- Neolithic solstice observation (Goseck)
Made possible
- European lunisolar calendar
- Horizon observatories (Goseck and Stonehenge circles)