h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Nebra Sky Disc - A2167922
Author: Gnomon - U151503

Another piece of archaeo-astronomy.

Hello Gnomon

What an interesting entry

I don't have much to say but wonder who the are now - and whether the disc on display anywhere (other than the internet)?

The only other thing is I wonder whether you can refer to the disc having been , when it's only 32cm diameter. Is there any speculation about what it was mounted on? And would it have been horizontal?

Maeshowe burial chamber in Orkney is another (of hundreds I know) stone age construction designed to receive the setting sun on the winter solstice down its entrance tunnel.


Fb

>>Is it on display?

I believe it is still being examined before being put on display.

>>Who are the legal owners?

I'll find out.

>>Would it have been used horizontally or vertically?

For alignement with sunrise and sunset, the disc would have to be used horizontally, but if it was used as a story-telling aid in teaching, it would make more sense to use it vertically with the ship at the bottom.

>>What was it mounted on?

It has been suggested that it was sown onto a piece of cloth, although there is no trace of any cloth attached to it.

OK, I've addressed all those points in the entry itself.

Looks great to me


F/b

Interesting

Note the English entry linked does have an un-touched image further down the article, and good diagrams to show how the arcs on left and right could be used to identify equinoxes or solstices or whatever they are.

Pimms

I'm not too happy with either of those links. The German one is the official site, but it is in German and is not well laid out. It has a section in English, but it is really badly translated from German.

The English site quotes an expert in archaeo-astronomy as saying the Equinox is on 22 June. It's not, that's the Solstice. (It also spells Crescent as Cresent).

It's always interesting to find out that the 'ancients' knew more than we previously thought they did.

Nice entry, too.


Geggs

National Geographic has better photos available at http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0401/feature4/index.html, though saddly the brilliant article is not available online.

Aurojit

That link should be http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0401/feature4/index.html without the comma. It's OK, but there are only one or two good pictures of the disk itself; that's the reason I didn't use it in the entry. That website seems to be the photos that weren't good enough to go into the magazine.

Ya, most of the photos are worse than what was available on the magazine, though I think the one showing the bottom of the disk was picked up from the magazine itself.
Aurojit

Interesting! Good entry

your friendly neighborhood

The photos are amazing. How fantastic to find something like this It almost makes me want to be an archaeologist...except that most archaeologists don't ever find anything as exciting.


F/b

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

And it's in!

Well done again, Gnomon!


Geggs

Gnomon

Pimms

Well done Gnomon!

Frenchbean

Congrats

Aurojit