Himmelsscheibe Online - The Sky Disc

The Sky Disc

On the 25.11.2002 there was an article about the sky disc found near Nebra in the newspaper "Der Spiegel". It was quite interesting and -as there were a couple of rather cold and rainy December evenings- I made my own theory which is different from official one. I can't believe that the 25 stars have no meaning. But this doesn't have to be bad because it leads to new discussions and discussions lead to new insights.

The sky disc "Himmelsscheibe von Nebra" is said to be 3600 years old. The sickles on the right end left mark the ankle of the sun rise and sun set on the winter and summer solistice. Scientists believe that the star cluster on the disc shows the The Plejades and that the other 25 stars don't show any special star or constellation. You'll get further official details if you click on the links.

The Sky disc

Sternhimmel am 21.12.1600 vor Christus 21:00

Sky on the 21.12.1600 B.C.21:00 made by the freeware programme "Cartes du Ciel ".
This programme can be downloaded here.

Stars and Constellations
It is possible to recognise the constellations The Great Bear, Cassiopeia, Andromeda und Orion. Also the stars Sirius, Vega and Deneb can be seen.

Star Cluster
Plejades or not Plejades - that's the question...
Maybe the 7 stars are the Plejades. They were important showing the farmers that spring time was near. But they don't fit in well with my interpretation.

What about the word Septentrion ? This word derives from septem(seven) and triones (a team of 3 oxen used for a plough). It means the Big or the Small Dipper/Plough and means North. From 1900-1100 B.C. Kochab - a star in the Small Dipper - was the polar star. This would match to the asssumed age of the Sky Disc. So maybe the star cluster is the Small Dipper or simply the North.

Crete
Amazingly on a clay disc found on Crete there are two symbols which look like the 7 stars. (Diskos zu Phaestos) This is a calendar of the Bronze Age and it is said to be the symbol for the equinox and goniometer.

Symbol 1

Symbol 2

These symbols are on the clay disc.

White horizontal Line
The white horizontal line could have been used to put the plate in a correct East - West position. This can be done with the Indian circle. Maybe this line represents the equinox. I think it is also possible to stretch ropes along the yellow diagonals across the sky disc. At the end of the ropes sticks can be put into the ground. After the middle has been marked with f.e. a rock a new sun observation place has been built.
In this way anywhere on the same latitude observation places could have been erected. Maybe every village got its own. Maybe as the number of contacts between single villages or with traders rose a certain coordination was needed. Stonehenge is on almost the same latitude and the knowledge of the two peoples was probably the same. People have to talk to trade. So the same language is needed. And if people talked f.e. on long winter evenings (due to the lack of T.V.) they exchanged stories, religions, knowledge and traditions. Its unlikely that peoples didn't influence each other by and by.

The star on the left of the line was replaced when the sickle was attached - but in a way that the line was still intact. It was not put to a different place which would have been more likely if the stars were randomly placed.

White vertical Line
On the left side the horizontal line is remarkable. It is divided into 4 equal segments. This doesn't seem to be accidentally. It seems to be more likely that they were used to mark other important holidays as Samhain (1.11.) or Beltane (1.5.). These holidays were reported much later but the origins had to come from somewhere.

Symmetry
The symbols on the disc seem to drift to the right.

But if one takes the four stars of the vertical line as one symbol, the disc seems symetrical and well-proportioned.

Perpendicular
A friendly reader pointed out that the star cluster is aligned to the sun bark. This would mean that the sun bark wasn't added later.

Dates
This would mean that there were 4 days per year to hold supra-regional markets or to make deals with a defined target date.

The upper half of the sickles on the left and right are longer. The diagonals cross above the horizontal line. This maybe the distance which results from the fact that the summer half-year is one week longer than the winter half-year. The distance is marked with the little green line.

(23.9 - 21.3 autumn and winter : 25 weeks 4 days
21.3 - 23.9 spring and summer : 26 weeks 4 days)

This could be calculated to see if it fits with actutal movement of the earth.

Calendar
If you want to trade with other cultures, you need a uniform calendar. If there (countries like Egypt or Greece) was already a calendar and you had none, it would have been likely to use that. Otherwise you had to agree which one to use.

The position of Cassiopeia is rather strange. Instead of 5 stars, there are only 4 stars, one belongs to the circle.
Let's assume that these 7 stars represent the week.
There are 32 stars altogether. 32 - 7 = 25 , so 25 stars are left for something.
One half-year consists of 25 or 26 weeks and 4 days. This looks very much like a calendar !

How can the sky disc be used as a calendar ?

A counter for the weeks(the 25 stars) and one for the days of a week(the star cluster) is needed. The first day is the star in the middle of the star cluster. Then one counts counter clockwise. After 7 * 25 days (175 days) the 4 days of Cassiopeia are used (179 days). This is the shorter half year.

Then one counts backwards plus one week (186 days). This is the longer half year.

179 + 186 = 365

So a day might have been called "Day of Polaris in the week of Arcturus in the summer half-year" .

Reihenfolge

The week and 4 days

All constellations and stars are the easiest ones to remember. Surely everyone knew them and all 32 names of the stars. So it could have been a quite popular calender known by everyone. If one knew the sequence one could use the calender without the plate.

Sun and Moon
The sun and the moon could - besides their original meaning - represent gods. Regarding the size there were the main gods. Or they represent both half-years. If the theory of the calendar is correct one pass of the calendar would just be a half-year.
Maybe it is also important in which phase the moon is shown. But if someone wants to draw the moon he will always draw it as a crescent moon never f.e. as a full moon.

Tara in Ireland looks similar. Coincidence?
It is situated on a hill overlooking a great part of Ireland. It is 5000 years old. The "Mound of Hostage" is a small artificial hill where people were buried with the entrance to the East. The "Rath of Kings" and the "House of Cormac" are earth walls.

The Cheops Pyramid was built in such a way that the shafts of the burial chamber pointed to Thuban - then the polar star- and to the star in the centre of Orion's Belt. The pharaoh wanted get to the circumpolar stars. These are the stars which are seen throughout the year. The shaft of the burial chamber of the queen pointed to Sirius. A boot was put into the pyramid for the travel after death.

The patterns are the same: the North and Orion's Belt - both as ways to reach heaven. Just as we still today believe in heaven.

Tara

Sun Bark
The bark (in other theories the Milky Way, the Northern Light or a rainbow) is in the first place a bow with stripes. This symbol appears in Ireland as well.

Loughcrew (ca.3000 - 3400 B.C.), 70km north of Dublin, is situated on the highest of 4 hills. ( map ) Maybe these hills were chosen because they resembled the girdle of Orion.

A stone in Cairn T. is illuminated on the equinox days for 20 minutes (Equinox Stone ( film )).

What might the symbols on this stone be? A star map?

Equinox Stone

Many symbols are there twice though they are not exactly alike. So they are maybe the same stars on different days or it symbolizes a movement on the Equinox days.

The light of the sun moves from the upper left corner to the lower right corner. The sun is rising in the east. The beam moves across the two big "flowers". So let's assume the two big flowers are the sun.

I think the bark is Orion's belt - again at two different times. While the sun moves across the stone, the bark moves to the place to meet the sun (Maybe the lines in the second barque symbolize the souls on their journey which arrive at the sun at last - this is the half-circle with the lines above the second flower.). At least on the picture.

In reality the sun rises in the east while Orion is setting in the west - Orion moves away.

But maybe this is just a question of explanation. If one takes a look at the religious believes in the ancient Egypt everything starts to make sense. After death it was believed the deceased traveled in a barque into the west into Osiris (= Orion) realm to reach eternal life. In this burial chamber in the end of this journey the deceased appears as a sun disc in the east to show that he or she is born again.

Dublin 23.9.2999 BC 3:25

Dublin 23.9.2999 BC 7:30

Dublin 23.9.2999 BC 3:25	Dublin 23.9.2999 BC 7:30
Orion is in the South	The sun rises in the East, Orion sets in the West

If this is true it would underline the theory that the position of great pyramids resemble the girdle of Orion.

These motives appear all over Europe and parts of Asia and Africa: cult and burial places on mountains - or in the case of the pyramids they were built for that purpose -, the stars, a boat, Orion and the sun. It seems that people always wanted to get to the stars after death. Maybe Orion's Belt became the boat which from then on appeared throughout mythology. Perhaps one should take the religious believes of a well-known culture as Egypt and apply them to other cultures - just to see how far one gets. Maybe all these culture were more simliar than we imagine.

Important note :

I have to point out that this is my personal theory which may contain mistakes.

So read this website critically and tell me if , where and why I am wrong !

If you do have a theory of your own, tell me !

Here you can have a look at the first draft of this page.

The fotos of the Sky Disc are shown by courtesy of
(c)Landesamtes für Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt 2002.

All rights reserved. Any copy of the text only with the approval of the owner.

P.S. Sorry about some grammer mistakes :-)

Webmaster B.Staufenbiel