A 3,600-year-old map of the solar system and constellations discovered in Germany in 1999 will be a star of the British Museum’s upcoming exhibit on “The World of Stonehenge,” which will open next year.
The “Nebra Sky Disc” 12″ disc with a blue-green patina is inlaid with gold symbols believed to represent the sun, moon and constellations. It’s only the fourth time it’s been shown outside Germany, and the first time in the UK. It last traveled in 2006. It was excavated in eastern Germany.
Along with the Nebra disc, the museum will show a 3,000-year-old gold sun pendant that the British Museum says is the most significant piece of Bronze-Age gold ever found in Britain. According to Neil Wilkin, the exhibition’s curator, “The Nebra Sky Disc and the sun pendant are two of the most remarkable surviving objects from Bronze Age Europe.”
The exhibition will take a look at the mythology and cosmology of ancient peoples, starting from the 4,500-year-old Stonehenge in southern England, and includes hundreds of artifacts. Wilkin said the disc and pendant are part of this because “While both were found hundreds of miles from Stonehenge, we’ll be using them to shine a light on the vast interconnected world that existed around the ancient monument, spanning Britain, Ireland and mainland Europe. It’s going to be eye-opening.”
