page_title: Nebra sky disk
section_title: Authenticity
hierarchical_section_title: Nebra sky disk / Authenticity
caption_attribution_description: English: Visitor Center Arche Nebra Deutsch: Besucherzentrum Arche Nebra
context_page_description: The Nebra sky disk is a bronze disk of around 30 centimeters diameter and a weight of 2.2 kilograms, having a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols. These symbols are interpreted generally as the Sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, and stars. Two golden arcs along the sides, interpreted to mark the angle between the solstices, were added later. A final addition was another arc at the bottom surrounded with multiple strokes.
  The disk is attributed to a site in present-day Germany near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, and dated by Archaeological association to c. 1600 BC. Researchers suggest the disk is an artifact of the Bronze Age Unetice culture.
  The style in which the disk is executed was unlike any artistic style then known from the period, with the result that the object was initially suspected of being a forgery, but is now widely accepted as authentic.
  The Nebra sky disk features the oldest concrete depiction of the cosmos yet known from anywhere in the world. In June 2013 it was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register and termed "one of the most important archaeological finds of the twentieth century."
context_section_description: There were initial suspicions that the disk might be an archaeological forgery. Peter Schauer of the University of Regensburg, Germany, argued in 2005 that the Nebra disk was a fake and that he could prove that the patina of the disk could have been created with urine, hydrochloric acid and a blow torch within a short amount of time. He had to admit in court that he had never held the disk in his own hands, unlike eighteen scientists who had actually examined the disk.
  Richard Harrison, professor of European prehistory at the University of Bristol and an expert on the Beaker people, allowed his initial reaction to be quoted in a BBC documentary:
  "When I first heard about the Nebra Disc I thought it was a joke, indeed I thought it was a forgery. Because it’s such an extraordinary piece that it wouldn’t surprise any of us that a clever forger had cooked this up in a backroom and sold it for a lot of money."
  Although Harrison had not seen the skydisk when he was interviewed, and his skepticism was reasonable at that point, the disk is now widely accepted as authentic and is dated to roughly 1600 BC on grounds of typological classification of the associated finds.
  As the item was not excavated using archaeological methods, even its claimed provenance could have been fictitious - hence its authentication has depended on micro-photography of corrosion crystals, which has produced images of structures that could not be reproduced by a faker.
  Harald Meller, lecturing to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in April 2008, gave a list of facts supporting the authenticity of the disc, and for its having been found at the site on the Mittelberg. The most persuasive of the latter was the discovery by the archaeologists — in the pit in which the looters said they had found the metalwork — of a fragment of gold leaf exactly fitting the gap present in the gold leaf covering of the 'sun' symbol when it was originally recovered.
caption: The Sky Disc Visitor Center near Nebra
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