Ancient site · Other
Nebra sky disc find site (Mittelberg)
In 1999 treasure hunters with a metal detector illegally dug up a bronze disc on the Mittelberg hill near Nebra, Germany. The state archaeologist recovered it in a police sting in 2002.
The disc, inlaid with gold, shows the Sun or full Moon, a crescent Moon and stars, including a cluster thought to be the Pleiades. It is the oldest known concrete picture of the sky, buried around 1600 BCE by people of the Únětice culture. It is now in the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle and on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.
- Dates
- disc buried c. 1600 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 51.28° N, 11.52° E
How we know
No writing existed; the disc was dug up illegally in 1999, so its date rests on scientific tests and the objects buried with it; most experts accept a Bronze Age date, though a 2020 paper argued for a later one.
Nearby sites
- Heuneburg 7th–5th century BCE (mudbrick wall c. 600 BCE)
- Hallstatt salt mines and cemetery c. 1200–350 BCE (prehistoric mining)
- Biskupin built c. 747–722 BCE; lived in into the 6th century BCE
- Ötzi the Iceman (find site) died c. 3230 BCE
- Tollund Man (find site) died c. 405–384 BCE
- Star Carr c. 9300–8500 BCE
Related
- Únětice culture archaeological culture
- The world in 2000 BCE: Cities of Bronze chapter