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In the last couple of decades our understanding of the prehistoric Europeans has been radically changed with the discoveries of ancient astronomical artifacts in Central Europe. Bronze Age Central Europeans had a sophisticated grasp of mathematics and astronomy. According to Berlin archaeologist Klaus Goldmann, "European civilization goes further back than most of us ever believed." [2] Goseck circle Germany 4900 BC Among these recent discoveries is the world's oldest observatory. Located in Germany, it is known as the Goseck circle, and discovered in 1991. The enclosure is one of hundreds of similar wooden circular Henges built throughout Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic during a 200-year period around 4,900 BC. While the sites vary in size--the one at Goseck is around 220 feet in diameter--they all have the same features: A narrow ditch surrounds a circular wooden wall, with a few large gates equally spaced around the outer edge. While scholars have known about the enclosures for nearly a century, they were stumped as to their exact function within the Stroke-Ornamented Pottery culture (known by its German acronym, STK) that dominated Central Europe at the time. The Goseck Henge is currently the oldest official 'Solar observatory' in the world. On the winter solstice, the sun can be seen to rise and set through the Southern gates from the centre. It has been observed that the entrances get progressively smaller the closer to the centre one gets, which would have concentrated the sun's rays into a narrow path. Being on the same latitude as Stonehenge means that 'astronomers' would have also benefited from viewing the extremes of the sun and moon at right angles to each other. It is also sitting on one of two unique latitudes in the world at which the full moon passes directly overhead on its maximum Zeniths. [3] [4] [5] The Nebra sky disk Germany 1600 BC The Nebra sky disk dates from 1600 BCE. Found in 1999, not far from the Goseck circle, it is one of the most important archaeological finds of the past century. It displays the world's oldest known concrete depiction of astronomical phenomena [6][7] and was used as an advanced astronomical clock. According to astronomer Wolfhard Schlosser of the Ruhr University Bochum, the Bronze Age Europeans already knew what the Babylonians would describe a thousand years later.[8] Also in Germany is the Magdalenenberg moon calendar discovered in 2011, under the Royal Tomb at Magdalenenberg, in Germany’s Black Forest. It is the largest Hallstatt tumulus grave in central Europe, measuring over 320ft (100m) across and (originally) 26ft (8m) high. Its central grave was robbed in antiquity. More recent excavations have recovered the locations of numerous secondary burials placed around the edges of the mound and of various timber structures, including rows of wooden posts. There is nothing random about the secondary graves, which might be those of relatives or retainers, buried as they died during the years that followed their leader’s funeral. The order of the burials around the central royal tomb fits exactly the pattern of the constellations visible in the northern hemisphere at Midsummer in 618 BC, while the timber alignments mark the position not of the sunrise and sunset but of the moon, and notably the Lunar Standstill. It is the earliest and most complete example of a Celtic calendar focused on the moon, and that following Caesar’s conquest of Gaul, Gallic culture was destroyed and these types of calendar were completely forgotten in Europe, to be replaced by the Roman sun-based calendar. |
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