Bronze Age Star Map: The Nebra Sky Disk
3/8/202651 min
In 1999, a mysterious bronze disc buried for millennia in central Europe transformed how we see the prehistoric world. The Nebra Sky Disk - forged 3,600 years ago - is the oldest known depiction of the night sky.
In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined, once again, by archaeologist Raven Todd DeSilva to uncover the remarkable story of this Bronze Age star map. Discovered in Germany in thrilling and illegal circumstances, this precious artefact reveals a sophisticated understanding of the heavens long before classical astronomy. Together, Tristan and Raven explore how ancient Europeans mapped the stars, what the disk’s symbols may represent, and why this extraordinary object continues to reshape our understanding of prehistoric science and belief.
MORE
The Skulls of Jericho:
The Bronze Age Collapse:
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel: @TheAncientsPodcast
Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds
The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.
Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
You can take part in our listener survey here:
https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTristan Hughes· Host0:00
Ever wondered why the Romans were defeated in the Teutoburg Forest? What secrets lie buried in prehistoric Ireland? Or what made Alexander truly great? With a subscription to History Hit, you can explore our ancient past alongside the world's leading historians and archeologists. You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week, covering everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe.
Hayden0:31
Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
Steven0:40
And I'm Steven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the Smash Daddy.
Hayden0:44
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic, Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
Steven0:53
That's right, Hayden. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
Hayden0:58
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong.
Steven1:05
Newsflash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy Fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 31:12
Disfruta más formas de ahorrar en Smith's, como precios bajos en todo pasillo. Ahorra aún más con los cupones digitales en la app de Smith's y gana puntos en combustible para ahorrar hasta un dólar por galón. Es fácil ahorrar. Smith's, Fresh para todos. Los ahorros pueden variar por estado. Aplican restricciones de