Ancient
Astronomy
2000–1600 B.C.
Article From Discover Magazine
Excavated illegally in 1999 in
Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, the extraordinary Nebra Sky Disc is considered both the
first known portable astronomical instrument and the oldest-known graphic
depiction of celestial objects in human history.
Made of a blue-green copper inset with
lustrous gold, the twelve-inch-wide disc contains an arrangement of seven stars
probably representing the Pleiades. They’re in between a crescent moon on the
right and either the full moon or sun in the center. Two golden bands at the
disc’s edge (one is missing) span eighty-two degrees, corresponding to the angle
between sunset at the winter and summer solstices at the latitude where it was
found.
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