{"it":{"id":"W11A25","kind":"artifact","sub":"Authenticated","name":"Nebra sky disc","place":"Halle","mat":"bronze, gold inlay","dims":"~30 cm; 2.2 kg","loc":"State Museum of Prehistory, Halle","acc":"n/a","find":"Mittelberg near Nebra, 1999, illegal detectorists; recovered 2002 Basel sting","flag":"genuine ancient","src":[104,468,566],"lat":51.483,"lon":11.966,"tags":["Sky beings"],"sum":"A bronze disc buried in Germany about 3,600 years ago shows gold suns, a crescent moon and a likely Pleiades cluster. Its gold side arcs span 82°, the sweep between the solstice sunsets at its find latitude.","why":"It is the oldest known concrete picture of the sky, and its date is still contested.","nfacts":8,"nsrc":3,"yt":"Compute the solstice sunset azimuth range at the Mittelberg find site and compare it with 82°.","rel":["EUR-007","ART023"],"hook":"The Nebra sky disc was dug up by looters in 1999 and seized in a Basel hotel sting in 2002."},"S":{"104":["Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"],"468":["Wikipedia: Nebra sky disc","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_sky_disc"],"566":["Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle: The Nebra Sky Disc","https://www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky-disc.html"]},"rec":{"id":"W11A25","alias":["ART012"],"ms":[{"a":"diameter","v":"30","u":"cm","unc":"around","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M084","s":["W11S64"],"c":"Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"},{"a":"mass","v":"2.2","u":"kg","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M085","s":["W11S64"],"c":"Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"},{"a":"solstice_arc_angle","v":"82","u":"deg","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M086","s":["W11S64"],"c":"Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"},{"a":"find_latitude","v":"51","u":"deg N","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M087","s":["W11S64"],"c":"Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"},{"a":"perimeter_holes","v":"38-40","u":"count","unc":"~3 mm each","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M088","s":["W11S64"],"c":"Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"},{"a":"gold_circles_phase1","v":"32","u":"count","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M089","s":["W11S64"],"c":"Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"},{"a":"hill_elevation","v":"252","u":"m","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M090","s":["W11S64"],"c":"Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"},{"a":"black_market_price","v":"700000","u":"DM","unc":"","by":"","yr":"2002","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M091","s":["W11S64"],"c":"Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","v":"bronze; gold inlays (multiple sources)","b":"S","s":["W11S64"],"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"},{"k":"Lab test","mat":"Provenance of metals","v":"Cu Bischofshofen (Pernicka); gold & tin Cornwall (later study)","m":"isotope/trace element","by":"Pernicka et al.","b":"S","s":["W11S64"],"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"},{"k":"Lab test","mat":"Associated birch bark","v":"radiocarbon 1600-1560 BCE","m":"14C","by":"","b":"S","s":["W11S64"],"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[{"a":"find_circumstances","r":"not in staged/legacy artifact record (free sources)"},{"a":"museum_accession","r":"not in staged/legacy artifact record (free sources)"}],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA091","a":"Encoded advanced astronomy","who":"popular AA literature/TV","main":"Bronze Age calendrical/astronomical object; Cornish gold + Mitterberg copper (Ehser 2011); Pernicka 2020 rebuts Iron Age redating","ms":"https://media.unesco.org/sites/default/files/webform/mow001/germany_nebra_sky_disc.pdf ; https://doi.org/10.1127/0935-1221/2011/0023-2140 ; https://doi.org/10.1553/archaeologia104s89","st":"contradicted","n":"status from artifacts row; no new lab rows this batch","nl":1},{"id":"AA178","a":"Advanced astronomy","who":"general","main":"Bronze Age astronomical object; solstice arc 82 deg matches 51 deg N","ms":"W11S64","st":"supported-explained","n":"'supported-explained': astronomy claim confirmed but mainstream Bronze Age explanation, no anomaly.","nl":"1"}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"art":{"claimed_anomaly":"Advanced astronomy","mainstream_reading":"Bronze Age astronomical object; solstice arc 82 deg matches 51 deg N","provenance_flag":"genuine ancient","current_location":"State Museum of Prehistory, Halle","find_circumstances":"Mittelberg near Nebra, 1999, illegal detectorists; recovered 2002 Basel sting","claimant":"general","status":"supported-explained","dimensions":"~30 cm; 2.2 kg","material":"bronze, gold inlay","date":"","culture":"","museum_accession":"n/a","b":"S","s":["W11S64"]},"alias_rows":[{"id":"ART012","v":"Encoded advanced astronomy","main":"Bronze Age calendrical/astronomical object; Cornish gold + Mitterberg copper (Ehser 2011); Pernicka 2020 rebuts Iron Age redating","b":"V","s":[]}],"sub":[],"src":[{"id":"W11S64","t":"Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia: Nebra sky disc","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_sky_disc"},{"id":"S2567","t":"Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle: The Nebra Sky Disc","u":"https://www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky-disc.html"},{"id":"VW11A25-4","t":"Archaeologia 104, p. 89 (Austrian Academy of Sciences, DOI 10.1553/archaeologia104s89)","u":"https://doi.org/10.1553/archaeologia104s89"},{"id":"VW11A25-5","t":"Austrian Academy of Sciences (austriaca.at) publication PDF on the Nebra sky disc","u":"https://austriaca.at/0xc1aa5572_0x003bfe98.pdf"},{"id":"VW11A25-6","t":"Canton of Basel-Stadt press release (2003): Himmelsscheibe von Nebra","u":"https://www.bs.ch/medienmitteilungen/2003-himmelsscheibe-von-nebra"},{"id":"VW11A25-7","t":"State Museum of Prehistory, Halle: Nebra Sky Disc","u":"https://www.landesmuseum-vorgeschichte.de/en/nebra-sky-disc"},{"id":"VW11A25-8","t":"Himmelswege e-museum: Nebra sky disc, dimensions","u":"https://www.emuseum-himmelswege.de/archaeostories/basics-himmelsscheibe/masse"}],"sum":"On 23 February 2002, in a hotel in Basel, police arrested two people who had come to sell a sword, a flanged axe and a bronze disc. Detectorists had dug the hoard out illegally near the summit of the Mittelberg hill, near Nebra in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, in July 1999, and it had passed through fences and dealers ever since. Basel handed the disc back to Saxony-Anhalt soon after.\n\nThe disc is about 32 cm across and weighs about 2.2 kg. Its gold inlays show a full disc, a crescent and 32 small stars, seven of them very probably the Pleiades. UNESCO added the disc to the Memory of the World register in 2013.\n\nWhat makes it hard to dismiss is geometry. The two gold arcs on its edges span about 82°, the angle the rising and setting sun sweeps along the horizon between the solstices at the latitude of Saxony-Anhalt in the Early Bronze Age.\n\nBecause the find was looted, its context rests partly on the finders' word. In 2020 Rupert Gebhard and Rüdiger Krause proposed an Iron Age date instead. Ernst Pernicka and twelve co-authors replied the same year: the findspot was excavated, soil and metal traces there match the hoard, the looters confessed in court, and the companion finds are radiocarbon dated to about 1600 BC. Readers in the ancient-astronomy tradition take the disc as proof that Bronze Age Europe tracked the sky closely. Analyses of the disc, its companion finds and the findspot have, by most accounts, confirmed the Early Bronze Age date.\n\nThe angle is real. How it got onto the disc, and when, is still debated.","qs":["The disc came through looters. How much of its story should depend on testimony from people who broke the law to find it?","Bronze Age farmers in Germany recorded the 82-degree solstice angle for their latitude. How much astronomy did prehistoric Europe really know?","If the disc were Iron Age instead, which conclusions about it would fall, and which would survive?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Nebra_disc_1.jpg/1280px-Nebra_disc_1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nebra_disc_1.jpg","title":"Nebra disc 1.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Frank Vincentz","cap":"Nebra Sky Disk"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Beifund.Himmelsscheibe.P1034161.jpg/1280px-Beifund.Himmelsscheibe.P1034161.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beifund.Himmelsscheibe.P1034161.jpg","title":"Beifund.Himmelsscheibe.P1034161.jpg","lic":"CC0","licurl":"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en","by":"WFS.Berlin","cap":"Beifund der Himmelsscheibe von Nebra"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Comparison_of_the_Bush_Barrow_Lozenge_%28c._1900_BC%29_and_Nebra_Sky_Disc_%28c._1800_BC%29.png/1280px-Comparison_of_the_Bush_Barrow_Lozenge_%28c._1900_BC%29_and_Nebra_Sky_Disc_%28c._1800_BC%29.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comparison_of_the_Bush_Barrow_Lozenge_(c._1900_BC)_and_Nebra_Sky_Disc_(c._1800_BC).png","title":"Comparison of the Bush Barrow Lozenge (c. 1900 BC) and Nebra Sky Disc (c. 1800 BC).png","lic":"CC BY 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0","by":"Ario1234","cap":"Comparison of the Bush Barrow Lozenge (c. 1900 BC) and Nebra Sky Disc (c. 1800 BC)"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Crab_Nebula.jpg/1280px-Crab_Nebula.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crab_Nebula.jpg","title":"Crab Nebula.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)","cap":"This is a mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, of the Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's ","alt":"This is a mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, of the Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/Detail_of_one_of_the_swords_buried_with_the_Nebra_Sky_Disc.png/1280px-Detail_of_one_of_the_swords_buried_with_the_Nebra_Sky_Disc.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Detail_of_one_of_the_swords_buried_with_the_Nebra_Sky_Disc.png","title":"Detail of one of the swords buried with the Nebra Sky Disc.png","lic":"CC0","licurl":"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en","by":"WFS.Berlin","cap":"Detail of one of the swords buried with the Nebra Sky Disc, showing the 'serpent' depicted on the central rib of the blade"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"Oldest","h":"Oldest concrete depiction of astronomical phenomena known anywhere","s":[208]},{"v":"c. 1800–1600","u":"BC","h":"Archaeological date of the bronze disc","s":[208]},{"v":"7","u":"stars","h":"Cluster of seven stars, interpreted as the Pleiades","s":[208]},{"v":"~30 cm; 2.2 kg","h":"Recorded dimensions","s":[209]}],"hs":{"208":["Wikipedia: Nebra sky disc (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_sky_disc"],"209":["Wikipedia Nebra sky disc","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nebra_sky_disc&oldid=1376251935"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/W11A25.webp","w":1280,"h":1037,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Nebra_disc_1.jpg/1280px-Nebra_disc_1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}