Morphometric findings on the Nebra Sky Disc

Abstract

The so-called ‘Nebra Sky Disc’ is arguably the most important archaeological find in central Europe of the last two decades. It is a richly-decorated bronze plate with gold symbols, some of them being interpreted as the Sun, the crescent-shaped Moon and 32 stars. Being dated to the end of the Early Bronze Age around 1600 bc, the Sky Disc is considered the earliest known transportable astronomical representation of the night sky. Earlier works identified at least four phases in the history of the Disc. In this work we analyse the Disc’s geometric pattern of the earliest phase, considering possible archaeoastronomical relations. Using mathematical techniques, we identify several potential geometric structures: We find that subsets of three or more Disc stars may represent straight alignments, and we argue that symmetries shown by parts of the geometric pattern may be related to an eight- or 16-month calendar–possibly used as a calendrical device prior-ranking to a symbolic or decorative character.