SECRETS OF THE STAR DISC

THE NEBRA STAR DISC

Deep inside the ancient mines of Europe is the key to one of the biggest archaeological mysteries. This is the extraordinary story of how a small metal disc is rewriting the epic saga of how civilization first came to Europe over 3,000 years ago.
Forests in Eastern Germany contain some of Europe’s oldest human settlement.
In 1999, three men went searching through the forests with metal detectors to unexpectedly find what is now known as the Nebra Star Disc.
The Bronze Age dawned about four and a half thousand years ago. It was during that time period that the trappings of true civilization appeared.
The star disc was acquired by archaeologist, Herald Meller of the Museum of Halle in Eastern Germany. It was he who believed that the disc was of great importance to Europe.
The Nebra Star disc is bronze, thirty centimeters in length and is covered with golden decorations that form a picture of the sun, the moon and stars.
Wolfhard Schlosser, an astronomer, found that the small cluster of seven stars between the sun and the moon on the star disc resembled the constellation, known in the time of the Bronze Age as The Pleiades.
The Pleiades are a very important group of eleven stars, several of them barely invisible to the naked eye.
Archaeologists believe that the Nebra Star disc dates all the way back to 1600 BC, making it the oldest accurate picture of the night sky in all history.
The disk is unlike any known artistic style from the period which it was derived, and had initially been suspected of being a forgery, but is now widely accepted as authentic.
The existing images on the star disc have sacred meaning. The sun is distinguished as a bringer of life, while the moon symbolizes passage of time.
The disk as preserved was developed in four stages
The horizon band of the star disc marks the sun’s sacred solstices in Central Europe.
All these symbols represent the complexity of European belief systems.
Read more: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/secrets-of-the-star-disc-4209/Overview#tab-facts#ixzz0xAEK6YMY