The World of Nebra Sky Disc and Stonehenge
Two Great Exhibitions Inspired by Ancient Sky Lore?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.28176Keywords:
atmospheric phenomena, Bronze Age, calendar, Cornwall, Iron Age, Pleiades, solsticesAbstract
Ever since its discovery in 1999, the Nebra Sky Disc has been one of the best-known and most debated European Bronze Age archaeological artefacts. In 2021–2022 it was particularly in the public spotlight due to two jointly organised international exhibitions, one at the State Museum of Prehistory Halle (Saale), Germany and then one at the British Museum in London. In view of the renewed public interest in the disc that these exhibitions have awakened, this article reviews research relating to the artefact and its interpretation, with particular consideration of supposed links with Bronze Age sky lore promoted by the exhibitions and their accompanying literature.
Downloads
References
Almgren, B., 1987. Die Datierung Bronzezeitlicher Felszeichnungen inn Westschweden. Acta Musei Antiquitatum Septentrionalum Regiae Universitatis Upsaliensis 6. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitets Museum för Nordiska Fornsaker Gustavianum.
Berger, D., R. Schwab and C. H.-H. Wunderlich, 2010. “Technologische Untersuchungen zu bronzezeitlichen Metallziertechniken nördlidt der Alpen vor dem Hintergrund des Hortfunds von Nebra”. In Der Griff nach den Sternen. Wie Europas Eliten zu Macht und Reichtum kamen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.-21. Februar 2005, edited by H. Mellar and F. Bertemes, 751–777. Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle 5. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte.
Bevan, L., 2015. “Hyper-Masculinity and the Construction of Gender Identities in the Bronze Age Rock Carvings”. In Picturing the Bronze Age, edited by P. Skoglund, J. Ling and U. Bertilsson, 21–36. Oxford: Oxbow.
Billington, S., 2008. “The Midsummer Solstice as It Was, or Was Not, Observed in Pagan Germany, Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England”. Folklore 119 (1): 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00155870701806167
Borg, G., 2019. “In Search of the Golden Sky: Cornwall as the Source of the Gold of the Bronze Age Sky Disk of Nebra”. Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall 2019: 38–57.
Borg, G. and E. Pernicka, 2017. “Goldene Zeiten? — Europäische Goldvorkommen und ihr Bezug zur Himmelsscheibe von Nebra”. Jahresschrift für mitteldeutsche Vorgeschichte 96: 111–138.
Bunnefeld, J.-H., R. Maraszek, T. Muhlenbruch, M. Shefzik, N. Schwerdt and B. F. Steinmann, 2021. The World of the Nebra Sky Disc – New Horizons. Accompanying Booklets to Special Exhibitions at the State Museum of Prehistory Halle 8. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte.
Ceci, L., 1978. “Watchers of the Pleiades: Ethnoastronomy among Native Cultivators in North-Eastern North America”. Ethnohistory 25 (4): 301–317. https://doi.org/10.2307/481683
Chamberlain, V. D., 1982. When Stars Came Down to Earth. Los Altos, CA: Ballena Press.
Cooley, L. J., 2011. “An OB Prayer to the Gods of the Night”. In Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction, edited by A. Lenzi, 71–84. Ancient Near East Monographs 3. Atlanta, FL: Society of Biblical Literature.
Davidson, H. R. E., 1988. Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Ehser, A., G. Borg and E. Pernicka, 2011. “Provenance of the Gold of the Early Bronze Age Nebra Sky Disc, Central Germany: Geochemical Characterization of Natural Gold from Cornwall”. European Journal of Mineralogy 23 (6): 895–910. https://doi.org/10.1127/0935-1221/2011/0023-2140
Eliade, M., 1976. Occultism, Witchcraft and Cultural Fashions: Essays in Comparative Religions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Feller, M. and J. Koch, 2007. “Geheimnis der Himmelsscheibe doch nicht gelöst? Warum die angebliche Entschlüsselung der Himmelsscheibe durch R. Hansen und H. Meller falsch ist” [online]. Accessed October 2022, https://www.liesbethbisterbosch.org/pags/docs/386_Manfred-Feller-Johan_1036.pdf.
Fitzpatrick, A. P., 1996. “Night and Day: The Symbolism of Astral Signs on Later Iron Age Anthropomorphic Short Swords”. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 62: 373–398. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X0000284X
Garrow, D. and N. Wilkin, 2022. The World of Stonehenge. London: The British Museum.
Gebhard, R. and R. Krause, 2020a. “Critical Comments on the Find Complex of the So-Called Nebra Sky Disc”. Archäologische Informationen 43: 325–346.
Gebhard, R. and R. Krause, 2020b. “Forged Heavens or Cast Disc? An Augmentation to ‘Critical Comments on the Find Complex of the So-Called Nebra Sky Disc’ (3 Sept.2020)”. Archäologische Informationen 43: 347–356.
Gleirscher, P., 2021. “Die Himmelsscheibe von Nebra: Zum Stand der Deutung und Datierung eines schillernden Ritualgeräts”. Archäologische Informationen 44: 187–204.
Gunnell, T., 1995. The Origins of Drama in Scandinavia. Woodbridge, UK: D. S. Brewer.
Hansen, R., 2006. “Die Himmelsscheibe von Nebra – neu interpretiert: Sonne oder Mond? Wie der Mensch der Bronzezeit mit Hilfe der Himmelsscheibe Sonnen- und Mondkalender ausgleichen konnte”. Archäologie in Sachsen-Anhalt 4 (2): 289–230.
Hansen, R., 2010. “Sonne oder Mond? Verewigtes Wissen aus der Ferne”. In Der Griff nach den Sternen. Wie Europas Eliten zu Macht und Reichtum kamen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.-21. Februar 2005, edited by H. Mellar and F. Bertemes, 953–962. Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle 5. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte.
Hawkins, I., 2021. “The Pleiades Experience in Polynesia, Mesoamerica, and the Andes”. Research Notes of the AAS 5 (4): Article 93. https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/abf4b9
Jahn, C., 2013. Symbolgut Sichel - Studien zur Funktion spätbronzezeitlicher Griffzungensicheln in Depotfunden. Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie Band 236. Bonn: Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt.
Kaul, F., 1998. Ships on Bronzes: A Study in Bronze Age Religion and Iconography. Copenhagen: National Museum.
Koch, J., 2007. “Bedenkenswertes zur Himmelsscheibe von Nebra” [online]. Accessed October 2022, http://www.nebra-himmelsscheibe.de/Koch-2007-Nebra.pdf.
Malmer, M. P., 1981. A Chorological Study of North European Rock Art. Stockholm: Almkvist & Miksell.
Meller, H., ed., 2004. Der geschmiedete Himmel. Die weite Welt im Herzen Europas vor 3600 Jahren. Halle (Salle): Theiss.
Meller, H., 2010. “Nebra: Vom Logos zum Mythos – Biographie eines Himmelsbildes”. In Der Griff nach den Sternen. Wie Europas Eliten zu Macht und Reichtum kamen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.-21. Februar 2005, edited by H. Mellar and F. Bertemes, 23–73. Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle 5. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte.
Meller, H., 2013. “The Sky Disc of Nebra”. In The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age, edited by H. Fokkens and A. Harding, 266–269. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meller, H., 2018. “Das Wissen um Zeit und Raum: Himmelsdarstellungen in der Bronzezeit”. In Bewegte Zeiten. Archäologie in Deutschland, edited by M. Wemhoff and M. M. Rind, 351–359. Petersberg, Germany: Michael Imhof Verlag.
Meller, H. and K. Michel, 2018. Die Himmelsscheibe von Nebra: Der Schlüssel zu einer untergegangenen Kultur im Herzen Europas. Berlin: Propyläen Verlag.
Molloy, B., 2009. “For Gods or Men? A Reappraisal of the Function of European Bronze Age Shields”. Antiquity 83 (322): 1052–1064. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00099348
Pannekoek, A., 1961. A History of Astronomy. London: Allen & Unwin.
Pásztor, E., 2021. “Prehistoric Light in the Air: Celestial Symbols of the Bronze Age”. In The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology, edited by C. Papadopoulos and H. Moyes, 335–373. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pásztor, E., 2022. “Prehistoric Interest in Stations of the Sun and the Moon – Fact or Fiction?” In Solarizing the Moon: Essays in Honour of Lionel Sims, edited by F. Silva and L. Henty, 71–83. Oxford: Archaeopress Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2w2277h.8
Pásztor, E. and C. Roslund, 2007. “An Interpretation of the Nebra Disc”. Antiquity 81 (312): 267–278. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00095168
Pernicka, E., J. Adam, G. Borg, G. Brügmann, J.-H. Bunnefeld, W. Kainz, M. Klamm et al., 2020. “Why the Nebra Sky Disc Dates to the Early Bronze Age: An Overview of the Interdisciplinary Results”. Archaeologia Austriaca 104: 89–122. https://doi.org/10.1553/archaeologia104s89
Pernicka, E., J. Lutz and T. Stöllner, 2016. “Bronze Age Copper Produced at Mitterberg, Austria, and its Distribution”. Archaeologia Austriaca 100: 19–55. https://doi.org/10.1553/archaeologia100s19
Rappenglück, M. A., 2016. “Cosmovisions Put upon a Disc: Another View on the Nebra Disc”. In The Materiality of the Sky, edited by F. Silva, K. Malville, T. Lomsdalen and F. Ventura, 47–63. Lampeter, UK: Sophia Centre Press.
Ratzon, E., 2016. “Early Mesopotamian Intercalation Schemes and the Sidereal Month”. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 16 (4): 143–151.
Rochberg, F., 2016. “The Brown School of the History of Science: Historiography and the Astral Sciences”. In The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World, edited by J. M. Steele, 5–17. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004315631_003
Rose, H. J., 1925. “A Suggested Explanation of Ritual Combats”. Folklore 36 (4): 322–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1925.9718336
Rowlands, M. and J. Ling, 2015. “The ‘Stranger King’ (Bull) and Rock Art”. In Picturing the Bronze Age, edited by P. Skoglund, J. Ling and U. Bertilsson, 89–104. Oxford: Oxbow.
Ruggles, C., 1999. Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Rutz, M. T., 2016. “Astral Knowledge in an International Age: Transmission of the Cuneiform Tradition, ca. 1500–1000 B.C.”. In The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World, edited by J. M. Steele, 18–54. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004315631_004
Schlosser, W., 2002. “Zur astronomischen Deutung der Himmelsscheibe von Nebra”. Archäologie in Sachsen-Anhalt 1: 21–23.
Schlosser, W., 2003. “Astronomischen Deutung der Himmelsscheibe von Nebra”. Sterne und Weltraum 12: 34–40.
Schlosser, W., 2004. “Die Himmelsscheibe von Nebra – Astronomische Untersuchungen”. In Der geschmiedete Himmel: Die weite Welt im Herzen Europas vor 3600 Jahren, edited by H. Meller, 44–47. Stuttgart: Konrad Theiss Verlag.
Schlosser, W., 2010. “Die Himmelsscheibe von Nebra – Astronomische Untersuchungen”. In Der Griff nach den Sternen. Wie Europas Eliten zu Macht und Reichtum kamen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.-21. Februar 2005, edited by H. Mellar and F. Bertemes, 913–933. Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle 5. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte
Verderame, L., 2016. “Pleiades in Ancient Mesopotamia”. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 16 (4): 109–117.
