Bronze Age Star Map: The Nebra Sky Disk
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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 DaSilva 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
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ever wondered why the Romans were defeated in the Tudorburg forest? |
| 0:04.0 | What secrets lie buried in prehistoric Ireland? |
| 0:07.0 | Or what made Alexander truly great? |
| 0:10.0 | With a subscription to history hit, you can explore our ancient past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists. |
| 0:17.0 | You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week |
| 0:22.5 | covering everything from the ancient world to World War II. |
| 0:26.5 | Just visit historyhit.com slash subscribe. It's one of the most extraordinary objects ever discovered from prehistoric Europe. |
| 0:49.3 | A 3,600 year old bronze and gold disc created at a time when Stonehenge was still |
| 0:57.0 | in use. |
| 0:58.0 | Remarkable, it's the oldest known depiction of astronomical knowledge from anywhere in the world, |
| 1:05.0 | the world's oldest map of stars, discovered right at the end of the 20th century in Germany in rather infamous circumstances. |
| 1:14.5 | This is the Nebara Skydisk, an object so strange and precise that has revealed just how advanced |
| 1:21.5 | these Bronze Age people were when it came to mapping the stars above. |
| 1:26.6 | Welcome to the ancients. |
| 1:28.4 | I'm Tristan Hughes, your host, |
| 1:30.2 | and this is the story of the Nebara Skydisk, |
| 1:33.2 | a Bronze Age star map. |
| 1:35.5 | Our guest is the award-winning archaeologist and art conservator, |
| 1:39.9 | Raven Todd de Silva. |
| 1:44.8 | Raven, it is such a pleasure to have you back on the show. |
| 1:47.2 | It is so great to be back. |
| 1:48.7 | To go back to the Bronze Age and Bronze Age Europe, |
... |
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