The almost circular disk has a diameter of approx. 32 cm and a thickness of 4.5 mm in the middle and 1.7 mm at the edge. It weighs approx. 2 kg. Disk is made of bronze, out of a mixture of copper and tin. The copper matched samples taken from a mine in Mitterberg near Mühlbach am Hochkönig in the eastern Alps. This source was verified by its lead isotope signatures. Aside from the very low percent of 2.5 tin content, the 0.2 % traces of arsenic is typical for bronze age metals. It was apparently hammered out of a sheet of bronze and repeatedly heated to avoid lesions. Through this process the bronze takes on a deep brown to black colour. Traces of egg white used to give the bronze a violet hue were also found. The present green coloured layer of corrosion occurred through being in the ground so long.
The appliqués of unbonded gold plate were inlaid and tempered several times. The bronze swords, axes, chisels and the remains of a spiral armband also found in the hoard give a date of their burial as approx. 1600 BCE- while the date these items were produced roughly falls between 2100 to 1700 BCE. Particularly unusual for an archaeological artifact is the evidence that the disk was modified several times over the course of its use. First the disk comprised of the round gold "stars", the larger gold sun disk, the sickle moon and the cluster of seven stars. Then two 82° bows were added on the "horizon", of gold from a different source, as indicated by its impurities. One "star" was moved to make room for the bow, while another two were covered by it on the right side of the disk, leaving thus only 30 of them visible. Later the so-called "Sunbark" was added between two parallel curves (again of gold from another region) embossed with fine indentations. Finally before it was buried, the left horizon was missing and 40 small holes were punched along the edge of the disk. What purpose they served is yet uncertain.
FIRST PHASE: According to Archaeologist Harald Meller und Astronomer Wolfhard Schlosser the cluster of 7 gold dots likely represent the Pleiades in the constellation of Taurus. The other 25 stars however, were only later recognized by other astronomers as reflecting an actual planisphere of the night sky.
The large gold disk is the assumed to represent the sun as well as the full moon, whereas the sickle is the waxing lunar cresent. According to Meller und Schlosser two dates for the visibility of the Pleiades on the west horizon. During the Bronze Age, this was on the 10th of March briefly before nightfall, and on the 17th of October, briefly before dawn. When in March the Moon was in conjunction with the Pleiades, it appeared as a fine sickle just before new moon. In the October conjunction the moon was full. However, given the different lenths of the lunar year as compared to the solar, not every year did this conjunction fall on these dates. By this the disk served as an agrarian reminder for planting and harvesting cycles. According to the Astronomer Rahlf Hansen this device helped Bronze Age farmers coordinate the moon year of 354 days with the sun year of 365 days, in essence keep track of necessary leap years. Similar knowledge is in found in old Babylonian cuniform texts. For this reason skeptics assumed the disk may have been imported, but the measure of 82° for the sun arc on the on the edge of the disk corresponds totally to the latitude of Nebra. Thus, it goes to show that central European astronomers of the time were far more advanced than historians had previously thought.
THE GOLDEN HATS
(from Wikipedia)
Golden hats (or Goldhüte) are a very specific and rare type of archaeological artifact from Bronze Age Central Europe. So far, four such objects ("cone-shaped gold hats of the Schifferstadt type") are known. The objects are made of thin sheet gold and were attached externally to long conical and brimmed headdresses which were probably made of some organic material and served to stabilise the external gold leaf. The following Golden Hats are known at present:
Unfortunately, the archaeological contexts of the cones are not very clear (for the Berlin specimen, it is entirely unknown). At least two of the known examples (Berlin and Schifferstadt) appear to have been deliberately and carefully buried in antiquity. Although none can be dated precisely, their technology suggests that they were probably made between 1200 and 800 BC.
It is assumed that the Golden Hats served as religious insignia for the deities or priests of a sun cult then widespread in Central Europe. Their use as head-gear is strongly supported by the fact that the three of four examples have a cap-like widening at the bottom of the cone, and that their openings are oval (not round), with diameters and shapes roughly equivalent to those of a human skull. The figural depiction of an object resembling a conical hat on a stone slab of the King's Grave at Kivik, Southern Sweden, strongly supports their association with religion and cult, as does the fact that the known examples appear to have been deposited (buried) carefully.
Attempts to decipher the Golden Hats' ornamentation suggest that their cultic role is accompanied or complemented by a usability as complex calendrical devices. Whether they were really used for such purposes, or simply presented the underlying astronomical knowledge, remains unknown.
The gold cones are covered in bands of ornaments along their whole length and extent. The ornaments - mostly disks and concentric circles, sometimes wheels - were punched using stamps, rolls or combs. The older examples (Avanton, Schifferstadt) show a more restricted range of ornaments than the later ones.
CALENDRICAL FUNCTIONS
It appears to be the case that the ornaments on all known Golden Hats represent systematic sequences in terms of number and types of ornaments per band. A detailed study of the Berlin example, which is fully preserved, revealed that the symbols probably represent a lunisolar calendar. The object would have permitted the determination of dates or periods in both lunar and solar calendars.
Since an exact knowledge of the solar year was of special interest for the determination of religiously important events such as the summer and winter solstices, the astronomical knowledge depicted on the Golden Hats was of high value to Bronze Age society. Whether the hats themselves were indeed used for determining such dates, or whether they simply represented such knowledge, remains unknown.
The functions discovered so far would permit the counting of temporal units of up to 57 months. A simple multiplication of such values would also permit the calculation of longer periods, eg. metonic cycles. Each symbol, or each ring of a symbol, represents a single day. Apart from ornament bands incorporating differing numbers of rings there are special symbols and zones in intercalary areas, which would have had to be added to or subtracted from the periods in question.
The system of this mathematical function incorporated into the artistic ornamentation has not been fully deciphered so far, but a schematic understanding of the Berlin Golden Hat and the periods it delimits has been achieved.
The large gold disk is the assumed to represent the sun as well as the full moon, whereas the sickle is the waxing lunar cresent. According to Meller und Schlosser two dates for the visibility of the Pleiades on the west horizon. During the Bronze Age, this was on the 10th of March briefly before nightfall, and on the 17th of October, briefly before dawn. When in March the Moon was in conjunction with the Pleiades, it appeared as a fine sickle just before new moon. In the October conjunction the moon was full. However, given the different lenths of the lunar year as compared to the solar, not every year did this conjunction fall on these dates. By this the disk served as an agrarian reminder for planting and harvesting cycles. According to the Astronomer Rahlf Hansen this device helped Bronze Age farmers coordinate the moon year of 354 days with the sun year of 365 days, in essence keep track of necessary leap years. Similar knowledge is in found in old Babylonian cuniform texts. For this reason skeptics assumed the disk may have been imported, but the measure of 82° for the sun arc on the on the edge of the disk corresponds totally to the latitude of Nebra. Thus, it goes to show that central European astronomers of the time were far more advanced than historians had previously thought.
THE GOLDEN HATS
(from Wikipedia)
Golden Hat of Schifferstadt, found in 1835 at Schifferstadt near Speyer, circa 1400-1300 BC.
Avanton Gold Cone, incomplete, found at Avanton near Poitiers in 1844, c. 1000-900 BC.
Golden Cone of Ezelsdorf-Buch, found near Ezelsdorf near Nuremberg in 1953, circa 1000-900 BC; the tallest known specimen at c. 90 cm.
Berlin Gold Hat, found probably in Swabia or Switzerland, circa 1000-800 BC; acquired by the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Berlin, in 1996.
The hats are associated with the pre-Proto-Celtic Bronze Age Urnfield culture. Their close similarities in symbolism and techniques of manufacture are testimony to a coherent Bronze Age culture over a wide-ranging territory in eastern France and western and southwestern Germany. A comparable golden pectoral was found at Mold, Flintshire, in northern Wales, but this appears to be of somewhat earlier date.
The cone-shaped Golden Hats of Schifferstadt type are assumed to be connected with a number of comparable cap or crown-shaped gold leaf objects from Ireland Comerford Crown, discovered in 1692) and the Atlantic coast of Spain (Gold leaf crowns of Axtroki and Rianxo). Only the Spanish specimens survive.
Unfortunately, the archaeological contexts of the cones are not very clear (for the Berlin specimen, it is entirely unknown). At least two of the known examples (Berlin and Schifferstadt) appear to have been deliberately and carefully buried in antiquity. Although none can be dated precisely, their technology suggests that they were probably made between 1200 and 800 BC.
It is assumed that the Golden Hats served as religious insignia for the deities or priests of a sun cult then widespread in Central Europe. Their use as head-gear is strongly supported by the fact that the three of four examples have a cap-like widening at the bottom of the cone, and that their openings are oval (not round), with diameters and shapes roughly equivalent to those of a human skull. The figural depiction of an object resembling a conical hat on a stone slab of the King's Grave at Kivik, Southern Sweden, strongly supports their association with religion and cult, as does the fact that the known examples appear to have been deposited (buried) carefully.
Attempts to decipher the Golden Hats' ornamentation suggest that their cultic role is accompanied or complemented by a usability as complex calendrical devices. Whether they were really used for such purposes, or simply presented the underlying astronomical knowledge, remains unknown.
The gold cones are covered in bands of ornaments along their whole length and extent. The ornaments - mostly disks and concentric circles, sometimes wheels - were punched using stamps, rolls or combs. The older examples (Avanton, Schifferstadt) show a more restricted range of ornaments than the later ones.
CALENDRICAL FUNCTIONS
It appears to be the case that the ornaments on all known Golden Hats represent systematic sequences in terms of number and types of ornaments per band. A detailed study of the Berlin example, which is fully preserved, revealed that the symbols probably represent a lunisolar calendar. The object would have permitted the determination of dates or periods in both lunar and solar calendars.
Since an exact knowledge of the solar year was of special interest for the determination of religiously important events such as the summer and winter solstices, the astronomical knowledge depicted on the Golden Hats was of high value to Bronze Age society. Whether the hats themselves were indeed used for determining such dates, or whether they simply represented such knowledge, remains unknown.
The functions discovered so far would permit the counting of temporal units of up to 57 months. A simple multiplication of such values would also permit the calculation of longer periods, eg. metonic cycles. Each symbol, or each ring of a symbol, represents a single day. Apart from ornament bands incorporating differing numbers of rings there are special symbols and zones in intercalary areas, which would have had to be added to or subtracted from the periods in question.
The system of this mathematical function incorporated into the artistic ornamentation has not been fully deciphered so far, but a schematic understanding of the Berlin Golden Hat and the periods it delimits has been achieved.
A horde is ten thousand screaming Mongol horsemen; a hoard, on the other hand, is a cache of buried treasure..
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected. My bad for thinking in too many languages at once!
ReplyDelete