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15 August 2016

THE AGE OF ASTRONOMY. 4/7 Artifacts: Nebra sky disk 1600BC


Ancient Astronomy Series: THE AGE OF ASTRONOMY. 4/7. Artifacts: Nebra sky disk 1600BC.

What is the age of Astronomy? How old is it? Can we find some tangible evidence of it's age?
Many clues can be found in almost all civilisations on Earth before us.
In this mini series of articles we will establish the chronology of astronomy with astronomical relics, instruments, artefacts, alignments, maps, references and places in ancient periods pinpointing exacly in time, the age of Astronomy.

Ancient Astronomy Series. List of the articles.
    1/7 Instruments: NASA's STEREO mission. Predicting the Sun's activities. 2006AD
    2/7 : Relics: Abù Bakr Ibn Yùsuf's medieval Moroccan astrolabes. 1216AD
    3/7: Places: El Caracol, Mayan Observatory. 906AD
    4/7: Artifacts: Nebra sky disk of North Germany. 1600BC
    5/7: Astronomical References: The scarab and the Dung beetle. 1813BC
    6/7: Alignments: Megaliths of Carnac, France. 3300BC
    7/7: Maps: Prehistoric Starmap. 10500BC

























1600BC. Nebra sky disk of North Germany.
Location: Central Europe.
The Nebra sky disc is one of the oldest astronomical artifact found in the world.
This is what we investigate in this article. Can this bronze disk represent something astronomical? And if it does, we could push the age of Astronomy back into an much earlier past than the previous evidence suggested in a past article of the Age of astronomy Series.

The Nebra sky disk is a bronze disk of around 30 cm diameter and a weight of 2.2 kg, with a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols. These are interpreted generally as a sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, and stars (including a cluster interpreted as the Pleiades). Two golden arcs along the sides, marking the angle between the solstices, were added later. A final addition was another arc at the bottom surrounded with multiple strokes (of uncertain meaning, variously interpreted as a Solar Barge with numerous oars, as the Milky Way, or as a rainbow).

















The disk is attributed to a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, in Germany, and associatively dated to c. 1600 BC. It has been associated with the Bronze Age Unetice culture.
The disk is unlike any known artistic style from the period, and was initially suspected of being a forgery, but is now widely accepted as authentic.
The discovery site is a prehistoric enclosure encircling the top of a 252 metres (827 ft) elevation in the Ziegelroda Forest, known as Mittelberg ("central hill"), some 60 km west of Leipzig. The surrounding area is known to have been settled in the Neolithic era, and Ziegelroda Forest contains around 1,000 barrows.
The enclosure is oriented in such a way that the sun seems to set every solstice behind the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountains, some 80 km to the north-west.

The disk is possibly an astronomical instrument as well as an item of religious significance. The blue-green patina of the bronze may have been an intentional part of the original artifact.
If authentic, the find reconfirms 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 summer and winter solstice. While much older earthworks and megalithic astronomical complexes such as the Goseck circle or Stonehenge had already been used to mark the solstices, the disk is the oldest known "portable instrument" to allow such measurements.






















In this case, the artifact speaks for its self. In my opinion, this remarkable find is absolutely linked to astronomy. From the first glimpse of the object, you are stirred toward astronomy. The date we link this artifact to in this article is 1600BC, but this was when it was abandoned, it must have been in use much earlier than 1600BC, As Selena said:

“The time will come when diligent research over long periods will bring to light things which now lie hidden. A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject... And so this knowledge will be unfolded only through long successive ages. There will come a time when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them... Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us will have been effaced.”

Believing this quote, the Nebra sky disk is probably as old as we think. But the knowledge to make an artifact like the Nebra disk is evidently much much older.

So what is the age of Astronomy, you ask? At least since 1600BC this time around. That means the knowledge of astronomy is at least 3615 years old.
The search for the age of Astronomy is still out there.

 Read the next article of our series on The age of Astronomy and see how far back we can push it's age in time. Stay tuned, and continue reading Ancient Astronomy Series: THE AGE OF ASTRONOMY. 

 Next article: THE AGE OF ASTRONOMY. 5/7: Astronomical References: The Scarab and the Dung Beetle 1813BC

Please take time to read the links and PDF files on this subject.

Pubic outreach program  by Astronomy club Toutatis, Kustavi, Finland

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