What I first thought was a button, the Nebra Sky Disc is a 30cm patinated bronze disc with inlaid gold symbols of the sun, or full moon, lunar crescent and stars, including a cluster interpreted as the Pleiades. How often objects of such simple beauty turn out to be ancient, this one is dated to 1600BC, Bronze Age Germany. Its message is astronomical, religious, revealing the deep symmetries of the universe - a power object indeed. Imagining the circumstances and the culture of its origin, the landscape, the politics of how this object came to be. Who was the maker, the priest, the scientist, the artisan?
2 days ago
