Here's a very special #ObjectoftheDay post, because this one excites me so much. It's a relatively recent find, and it teaches us a lot about how our predecessors viewed the world - the Nebra Sky Disk! 1/ 
Back in 1999, some detectorists were looking for valuables on the Mittelberg in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. They uncovered what appeared to be a decorated bronze disk, which they passed on to the black market - all finds need to be reported to the government in Germany /2
For the next few years, the disk passed from collector to collector, until archaeologists became aware of its existence. In 2002, the police retrieved it with the help of archaeologist Harald Meller. The detectorists were nicked & led archaeologists to the original site... /3
A dig revealed a number of bronze weapons and other artefacts that helped date the disk to sometime around 1600BCE. The presence of barrows and other grave mounds nearby, as well as the elevation of the site, suggested a ritual site, if not occupation. /4
The Nebra Sky Disk appears to be one of the very oldest depictions of the universe we've ever found. On the bronze disk, inlaid with gold, appears to be a full and waning moon (or eclipsing sun?). More importantly, many of the stars seem to be recognizable... /5
Most significantly, the stars in the top right hand corner appear to represent the Pleaides, which would have been visible to those living in and around the Bronze Age Mittelberg... /6
On either side of the (restored) disk are arcs that span around 82 degrees, which line up with the arc of the sunrise and sunset around the Mittelberg. It makes it seem that this is an artefact very much tied to the site. /7
Down the bottom of the Nebra Sky Disk is a 'sun ship' - it was a belief among many European Bronze Age peoples (among others) that the sun travelled across the sky in a ship each day. /8
To add to the mystery of the piece, the materials come from all over the place - gold and tin from England, the copper from Austria. It seems that this was an item made at relatively great expense. 9/
(Just as an aside, trade, flowing all over Europe and beyond, for millennia. We've always travelled, we've always bartered, swapped and sold - nothing is new. End of soapboxing.) /10
So what was the Nebra Sky Disk? Truth be told - we don't know! Is it a kind of way of knowing where you are - a map? Is it a kind of way of working out what time of year it is - a calendar? Is it a ritual device? We honestly don't know! Only further study can shine a light. /11
What I love about it, is that it's a very real piece of evidence of the reverence and awe that Bronze Age people felt towards the heavens - something I think we forget. For them, it was much more than something orange through a veil of pollution. /12
It's objects like the Nebra Sky Disk that remind me why I wanted to be an archaeologist or a historian as a kid - to reach out and connect, even if just for a moment, with those that came before. To feel the awe they felt towards the world around them. /13
