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The Nebra sky disc, State Museum of Prehistory, Halle
The Nebra sky disc, State Museum of Prehistory, Halle. Photo: Frank Vincentz · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Ancient worlds · Central Europe · Early Bronze Age, c. 1800–1600 BCE

The Nebra Sky Disc

Established1800 BCE – 1600 BCEMittelberg hill near Nebra, Germany

The oldest known concrete depiction of the night sky.

Research draft · editor review pending. Every claim below is linked to a checked source, but this dossier has not yet been reviewed by a human editor. Spot an error? Corrections are logged.

The Nebra sky disc is a bronze disc about 30 cm across, inlaid with gold symbols: a sun or full moon, a crescent, and stars, including a tight cluster widely interpreted as the Pleiades. It was found buried on the Mittelberg hill in Germany in 1999 by illegal metal detectorists and recovered in a police sting operation.

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Connected dossiers

StonehengeSame era · Bronze Age European sky-watching.The Antikythera MechanismSame open question · Ancient attempts to model the sky.

See The Nebra Sky Disc in the discovery universe →

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How to read the labels

EstablishedSupported by strong, converging evidence.
ContestedEvidence exists but qualified scholars disagree.
UnresolvedThe question is open; evidence does not settle it.
LegendComes from myth, literature or tradition, not physical evidence.
SpeculativeA hypothesis with little direct evidence so far.

Hero image: The Nebra sky disc, State Museum of Prehistory, Halle. Photo: Frank Vincentz · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons. Evidence labels describe the written claims, not the image. Version 1 · updated 2026-10-22.