Posted on 03/01/2002 7:02:46 AM PST by blam
Bronze Age 'star chart' found
German archaeologists claim to have found a Bronze Age star chart.
The bowl is thought to be around 3,600 years old and depicts the sun, the moon, a star formation and a ship.
If genuine it suggests astronomy may have been practised hundreds of years earlier than thought.
The bronze bowl is 16 inches in diameter and weighs almost 4.5 pounds but is now in the hands of a private collector.
It was found, together with a bronze sword and bracelets, by two men in Sangerhausen, Sachsen-Anhalt, according to Germany's Express newspaper.
Harald Meller, a local government archaeologist, said: "It shows a journey through the skies. A depiction, that was well known in ancient Egypt, but not thought to be so in central Europe."
The finders, who are alleged to have sold the treasure for around £9,000, have been arrested in connection with fencing charges.
Since then it has been sold on again - this time to a private collector for £215,000.
German laws on the ownership of this kind of discovery are unclear and negotiations are now under way between the collector and office for archaeology in Sachsen-Anhalt.
Meller, who is said to be furious that the bowl was sold, said: "If the slab is genuine, it could well be the most important find in European cultural history."
Story filed: 14:28 Friday 1st March 2002
I'm looking but haven't found any yet.
Luckily, in Germany they don't don't pander to "Ancestors of Bronze Age Gemans" groups.
This interpretation is subject to change if a photo of the object is made available.
LOL. My #2 dog is named Ra, #1 Tut, and #3 Nefertiti. (Okay, okay #4 is 'Boots.') My dog Ra has a hyperactivity problem. I want to see a picture of this star map!
Those were certainly interesting times in Egypt. Maybe the bowl was just taken North by the Proto-Celts who left Egypt sometime around ~1600 BC and they sold it there at a garage sale? Nothing in the article says it was created in Europe.
AHEW! It does no say one word about this bowl ever being in Egypt. Germans have always been known as good craftsmen, huh? (Remember, Thera 'blew' in 1628 BC, maybe everyone didn't go with Moses and some went to Germany instead, hee, hee.)
Right, I picked up Egypt from this in the original article:" [Harald Meller, a local government archaeologist, said: "It shows a journey through the skies. A depiction, that was well known in ancient Egypt, but not thought to be so in central Europe."]
>Remember, Thera 'blew' in 1628 BC, maybe everyone didn't go with Moses and some went to Germany instead, hee, hee.)
Yep, that's what I was getting at. The blow date of Thera is actually a pretty good match for when the early Israelites from the Tribes of Dan, Judah and Asher bailed out of Egypt by sea and became known to history as the Pre-Celts. The were active in forming colonies in Greece, Italy, many in Spain and more in Ireland. This exodus by sea predated Moses overland Exodus by about 200 years, and possibly more, depending on which Exodus date theory you go with.
The Thera date for the Pre-Celts works for me. It's about the time of the major Kingdom change in Egypt which put the pressure on the Israelites. The Thera bang provides a heck of an additional excuse to leave Egypt, and probably good cover under which to do it.
Okay, I'm not arguing, but what causes you to believe there were two Exoduses? So to speak. Why couldn't they all have left at the 1628 Thera dang? (I'm asking because I know you have an answer and I want to know it.)
The second part of the quiz is why is Crete so important in South, North Trade that it dominated access to Europe?
There is something funny about selling a sword and being arrested on fencing charges.
While that appears to be the case and there is no evidence to the contrary, I am just putting sparse clues together to try to get a picture of life back then. Those were less hectic times. What's 2000 years here and there in prehistory? It's not like these days, when what happened last week is already ancient history.
But, you are correct, Otzi didn't have the bowl in his rucksack. He could have had one like it, although it might not have been of bronze. The old myths go back pretty far, some of them.
Otzi was in to copper, remember the axe? They even speculated that he was a copper smelter due to the high traces of copper in his body. (That may have been due to lack of access to tin, not lack of knowledge.)
As part of my ancient world, tin, in significant quantity, was imported from Britain by Phoenician traders. They operated until Rome got rolling and established their own trade with Britain.
If it were not for the tin, Rome wouldn't have bothered with Britain. It's too cold up there, you can't get a tan, and you are cut off from civilization. A wild and dangerous tour of duty, and impossible for the legion to keep order.
One has to wonder what the bowl was doing so far north.
Yup. I've read that the Phoenicians ran a blocade at Gilbralter to keep other ships from following them to the source of tin, England.
One has to wonder what the bowl was doing so far north.
May be another source of tin? Also, they may have traded for 'raw' bronze and made it themselves?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.