[CPProt.net] Ancient sky map or fake? German experts row over star disc

[MSN and CPProt list (Ton Cremers)]

Ancient sky map or fake? German experts row over star disc 

Luke Harding in Berlin
Tuesday March 1, 2005
The Guardian 

One of Germany's most acclaimed archaeological finds - a 3,600-year-old disc
depicting the stars and the planets - is at the centre of a dispute
following claims that it is a modern forgery. 
According to Germany's museum establishment, the Sky Disc of Nebra is the
oldest depiction of the heavens discovered and offers an insight into the
Bronze Age mind. 

But the authenticity of the disc has been challenged by one of the country's
leading archaeologists, Peter Schauer of Regensburg University. He told a
court in Halle that the artefact was nothing more than an amateurish
forgery. 

Prof Schauer said that the ancient-looking green patina on the artefact was
not old at all, and had probably been artificially created in a workshop
using acid, urine and a blowtorch. 

The indentations on the disc's side, meanwhile, were also not made by a
Bronze Age tool but were done by machine, he said. 

"My colleagues don't want to believe it. But there is little doubt that the
disc is a fake," he told the Guardian yesterday. "It looks very nice. It has
the sky and the stars. You can even see the Pleiades. But I'm afraid it's a
piece of fantasy." 

The disc was allegedly found in 1999 by two amateur metal detectors. They
claimed they discovered it in a muddy field close to a prehistoric hill fort
near the east German town of Nebra, with two ancient swords and jewellery.
The amateur archaeologists then attempted to sell the disc to various German
museums for 1m Deutschmarks. Police in the Swiss city of Basel eventually
arrested the pair and they were convicted of handling stolen goods. They are
appealing against the sentence, arguing that if the disk is a fake they
should not have been convicted in the first place. 

 Last week a judge in Halle called Prof Schauer as an expert witness after
he wrote a letter to the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper last November
saying that the disc was a fake. 

Other experts, though, have poured scorn on the professor's testimony. "An
examination of the patina confirms its ancient origins ... I have no doubt
that it does indeed come from the Bronze Age," another professor, Josef
Riederer, told the court. Tests revealed that the disc had come from the
Nebra site, yet another expert, Gregor Borg, claimed. 

The case is embarrassing Germany's curatorial establishment, which had
hailed the disc as the most sensational archaeological discovery of the last
century. The disc, with its gold appliqués, was the oldest concrete
representation of the cosmos to date and a key find not only for archaeology
but also for astronomy and the history of religion, experts claimed. It
probably belonged to an early Bronze Age prince, they added, who would have
exchanged goods across Europe. Thousands of Germans have flocked to an
exhibition in Halle to see the disc. 

Yesterday, however, Prof Schauer said the disc could have been manufactured
by shamans from Siberia, and was probably no more than "two or three hundred
years old". Asked whether he might be wrong, he replied: "I spent 19 years
examining finds from across the ancient and Roman world. I know what I'm
talking about." 

The judge is likely to rule on the case next week. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,2763,1427599,00.html