According to Deutsche Welle, the Bronze Age "himmelscheibe" could have been used to synchronize the solar and lunar calendar.



Hamburg astronomer Ralph Hansen found that the position and appearance of the sun, moon, and stars would only occur every two to three years when an additional "intercalary" month needed to be added to the lunar calendar. The earliest written records specifying such an adjustment come Babylonians of the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.

Unfortunately, the himmelscheibe was not properly excavated although it is thought to have come from a Bronze Age site called Mittelberg near Halle in Sachsen-Anhalt. The himmelscheibe itself was recovered by Swiss police during a criminal investigation of art theft and money laundering. Archaeologists have been excavating the site from which it was probably looted, but that work appears to have progressed more slowly than that of the astronomers who are interpreting the object's function.

I was actually looking for another story, about German excavations uncovering a temple to Ramses II in Cairo, when I stumbled upon this news about the himmelscheibe. I have been interested in this object since it was first reported, because my father's ancestors are from this part of Germany and I visited Halle with him a few years ago.