"An ingenious object of knowledge"

An ingenious object of knowledge and Germany's first calendar: Saxony-Anhalt's chief archaeologist Harald Meller explains his view of the spectacular find in an interview - and reveals his favorite places in Halle and Nebra.

What makes the Nebra Sky Disc so unique?
The Sky Disc is one of the few artifacts that allows us to understand the spiritual world of prehistoric people 3,600 years ago. What did people philosophize about back then, what world models and concepts of time did prehistoric people have? Before the discovery of the Sky Disc, we were pretty much poking around in the fog because we have no records from that time. The Sky Disc gives us a deep insight into the spiritual world of prehistory and is therefore of extraordinary importance.

How did you feel when you saw the disc for the first time?
I was completely amazed by its beauty. I was amazed by the quality of the work and the great weight of the disc - it weighs 2.3 kilograms. I immediately realized that it was a very important find. At the same time, as a kind of undercover investigator and intermediary, I was right in the middle of a crime thriller, as the disc had been found by illegal excavators in 1999. And now it was being offered to us by fences. I couldn't just take the Sky Disc and run away, which is what I would have preferred to do to save it. We also didn't know whether we would get everything - including the accompanying finds, but above all information about the place where it was found. We succeeded, and that was a great stroke of luck.

You have been leading the research work on the Sky Disc since then - what has happened during this time?
Over the past 20 years, fundamentally new methods have been developed that enable us to study the disc in a completely different way. We are constantly discovering new things. In the beginning, we examined the disc with a large scanning microscope. Today, we can do this with digital microscopes, which preserve the actual colors and allow us to take high-resolution images for documentation. Today, for example, we can also measure the composition of the metals much more precisely and take computer tomography images of the disc to look inside it.

What exactly does the Sky Disc actually show?
First and foremost, it shows how to make a modern calendar as we know it today. That was important for people back then. Because if you have a calendar, you control time. Calendars were always made by the powerful, such as Julius Caesar or Pope Gregory - this is how the Julian and Gregorian calendars came about.

The disc shows a celestial constellation that occurs in spring when the three to four day old crescent moon joins the Pleiades. This ultimately shows the rule of the leap year. And you need this to make a valid calendar, as we have in modern times.
For me, the sky disc is an ingenious object of knowledge in its encryption. Just one example: the disc once showed 32 stars and the sun, and the ratio of 32 to 33 is exactly the ratio of lunar to solar years. This is anything but banal. At the same time, mythological ideas are depicted: A ship, which was mounted later, sails across the sky on the disc, transporting the sun. Sober scientific approaches and mythological ideas are thus closely linked.

What kind of people were they back then?
They were people like us, just as intelligent, just as capable. Like us, they lived in an organized society, something like an early state - with a military - that protected its population. That's what connects the people of Nebra with us. Today we think that rich and poor or strong and weak are self-evident - but during 99 percent of human history did not exist. People were free, made their own decisions as hunters and gatherers and lived in extremely flat hierarchies. In a way, modernity was invented in Europe in Nebra. The principle: You give me taxes and I give you protection. Without the Sky Disc, we would not have been able to decipher these relationships.

Do you have any favorite places in the State Museum of Prehistory and the Nebra Ark?
My favorite place in the State Museum is the café. I meet people there and there is also a nice bookshop. I also like the elephant room: You stand opposite a huge elephant and are happy that the children are allowed to touch it.

How would you explain the Sky Disc to children?
I would tell children that for thousands of years it didn't matter whether you arrived a quarter of an hour earlier or later, because you didn't really know. People simply followed the sun. And lived according to the seasons. At some point later, there was something like the state, power and rule. But that is not natural. But if all this exists, then time is an instrument of power. Whoever rules over time rules over people. That is why the powerful invent time. The first instrument that could be used to measure and organize time was the sky disc.

What have you discovered recently?
The ring shrine at Pömmelte - which can also be used to measure and visualize time. Next to the ring sanctuary, we discovered the largest Early Bronze Age settlement in Central Europe. The people behind the Sky Disc lived there. For me, Pömmelte is the Stonehenge of Germany. We have been digging there intensively for ten years.

What else shouldn't be missed in Halle and Nebra?
Halle's market square, because it is one of the largest and most beautiful market squares in Germany - with fantastic buildings such as the Red Tower, the market church and the department stores from the early 20th and late 19th century. You should also visit the Francke Foundations, which are a candidate for World Heritage status. Children particularly like the natural history chamber there. And finally, Moritzburg Castle is worth a visit - it exhibits magnificent art. While you're in Nebra, you should also go to nearby Memleben and visit the place where two German emperors died, who also left their mark on our present day. If Otto the Great had not defeated the Hungarians at Lechfeld in 955, we might not be living in the state we live in today.

What fascinates you about archaeology?
That it allows us to shed light on the 99 percent of human history that lies in the dark. And that you always discover new things, such as the Sky Disc, which then possibly changes our view of the past. When you look so far into the past in archaeology, I think you gain a better understanding of what makes people human. In prehistory, individuals come to the fore in their individuality, as part of a group in which they feel secure. He is not yet a small cog in a large structure.

Why are there so many World Heritage Sites in Saxony-Anhalt?
Saxony-Anhalt has so many unique cultural treasures because the state lies in the heart of Europe on some of the most fertile soil in Germany. It has always been a central area for transportation and innovation. The heart of Germany has been beating in Saxony-Anhalt for many centuries.