Gold inlays of a moon, sun and stars.
Until now the Nebra disc, a superb circular plate 32 centimeters in diameter, was considered the oldest representation of the starry vault, dating back to the Bronze Age, between 2200 and 1600 BC.
AD A moving symbol of a relationship between our ancestors and the infinitely large.
But the origins of this very beautiful object kept at the museum in Halle in Germany could be much more recent.
Read also: Thirteen 2,500-year-old sarcophagi discovered in Saqqara, Egypt
In any case, this is what two German archaeologists, Rupert Gebhard, professor at the University of Munich and Rüdiger Krause, of the University of Frankfurt, affirm in an article.
According to them, the 2 kilogram disc, made of gold and tin, dates back only to the Iron Age, between 800 and 50 BC.
AD
"There is no convincing evidence that the swords, axes and bracelets of the Bronze Age form a set of common origin
,
"
they say in a statement relayed by
Sciences et Avenir
.
No proof except the word of the two looters who, in 1999, unearthed the loot near Leipzig.
Exceptional for the Neolithic
The State, after having cornered the two thieves who were seeking to resell the treasure, will carry out radiocarbon dating on certain objects.
These date back to the Bronze Age.
But protest archaeologists consider that the disc comes from another place and escapes this dating.
The looters would have lied or were mistaken.
Based on the designs on the item, they think more of the Iron Age.
This would explain the exceptional character of this disc for the Neolithic period.
Neither the Egyptians nor any civilization of the time produced a similar work.
Before the publication of this article, Rüdiger Krause had already questioned the age of the disc.
His opposition to the specialist Harald Meller, who advocates the opposite, is not new.
Questioned by our colleagues from
Sciences et Avenir
, he defends himself without much precision: "
It is impossible for me to cover here in a nutshell all the inconsistencies of their article
".
According to him, they would not have sufficiently taken into account the previous publications.
The quarrel is not about to end.