The Pleiades and the crescent moon - spring begins
Fully booked Children's University Siegen - the first event focused on the Nebra Sky Disk.
The celestial bodies provided information about the time of year
Children's University Siegen: The Nebra Sky Disk was the focus of interest
A world documentary heritage was the focus of the first children's university event of the spring season on the topic of "The Seasons". Alina Ettrich and Katharina Gröpl from the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle/Saale had a replica of the Nebra Sky Disk with them and lots of information about the bronze disk, which is at least 3600 years old and depicts the sun, moon, stars, horizon arcs and a ship.
There were no printed calendars or clocks in the Bronze Age. People looked at nature and the starry sky to find their bearings. This is why the Nebra Sky Disk was created. It is made of bronze, which is nine parts copper and one part tin. The metals were heated over a fire, poured onto a block and hammered. According to current knowledge, it must have taken around two days for the disk to take the right shape. It was reheated about ten times and further worked with a kind of hammer. The celestial elements were then engraved with a chisel and the surfaces were covered with gold, which stuck in the cracks. At the time of its creation, the disk was almost as black as the night sky. As it was probably buried after a volcanic eruption, substances in the forest floor destroyed this dark patina, resulting in today's greenish malachite layer.
The Nebra Sky Disk is not quite round, has a diameter of 31.4 cm and weighs 2.2 kilograms. Children were allowed to estimate the weight themselves after holding the replica in their hands.
The Pleiades - a cluster of stars - are depicted on the disk. Bronze Age people knew that when the Pleiades and the crescent moon appeared together, it was time for sowing (March). If the Pleiades appeared together with the full moon, it was the time of fall and thus the time of harvest. The horizon arcs of the disk were added later. They overlay earlier stars. These arcs reflect the changing sunrise and sunset throughout the year. The so-called sun barque of the sky disk could be based on a travel memory of Bronze Age people. Barques equipped with oarsmen were known from Egypt.
Subsequently, the Sky Disc was perforated at its edges. The holes were probably made to attach the sky disk to a standard for display purposes. In this way, it symbolized the power of the owners in a presentable way.
At some point, the Sky Disc was buried vertically in the ground on the Mittelberg not far from Nebra. The exact reasons are not known. Presumably, the sky was darkened by a volcanic eruption in Greece at this time. This could have resulted in failed harvests and a famine in what is now Saxony-Anhalt. It is possible that people wanted to appease the gods by sacrificing the valuable bowl.
The Sky Disc was found in 1999 by metal detectorists and thieves who have since been convicted. As Nebra was confirmed as the site of the find, the state of Saxony-Anhalt received the precious relic from the Bronze Age. It has been on display at the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle an der Saale since 2008. A multimedia museum, the "Nebra Ark", was created not far from the site.
The museum educators had a cardboard sky disk for each child. The images had to be cut out of gold foil and stuck on. There were also coloring templates for the eight to twelve-year-olds. Crayon sets were provided by the House of Science. The children's university is supported by Sparkasse Siegen, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Siegen's public utilities.
