The A to Z Challenge is on! Hello and welcome to my Main blog. My name is Rose Anderson and I’m a romance novelist. Join me and more than 2279 bloggers and authors as we blog the alphabet throughout the month of April. My daily posts will be mostly history with some science topics here and there. I’ve chosen subjects that tickle my fancy, I hope you will find them interesting too.
Keep the topic rolling! If you have comments or questions, add them at the end of the post. I may not know the answer off the top of my head but I love research and would enjoy discussing my topics further. Comments can be made just below my bio in the tag section.
*FREE* If you enjoy reading scorching romances with unique twists and characters full of personality and depth, scroll down for a free chapter sampler. Find my book trailers in the tabs above.
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Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter N ~
N for Nebra Sky Disk
People have lived in Europe a long time. Modern humans only hit the scene around 40,000+ years ago. They eventually absorbed those heavy-boned cousins on our family tree — the early peoples called Neanderthals (named for the Neander valley in Germany where their bones were first discovered). Such stone age peoples have lived across Europe for 300,000 years or longer. Like I said, a long time.
In that lengthy inhabitation early peoples left evidence behind. Sometimes this evidence is small like fire-baked rock from their hearths or stone chips from their tool making. Some things are grander, such as Lascaux and Chauvet Caves, and Stonehenge, Newgrange, Carnac, and other monolithic structures. Others come later like the Roman baths, aqueducts, and Hadrian’s Wall for example. Some things are stumbled upon like the body of English King Richard III, viking swords, and caches of Roman coins. These historical treasures, large and small, have value to mankind for they show us our past. Museums and universities buy them, study them, and put them safely on display that we might know ourselves. Sadly, there are unscrupulous collectors of artifacts and antiquities who, by the very nature of their wants and desires, have created a market for poachers, plunderers, potters, and grave robbers. Archeological sites around the world are destroyed and looted, their goods sold on the black market.
Today’s post begins just that way.
In 1999, two previously-convicted looters were out sweeping the forests of Germany with metal detectors. Just outside the town of Nebra they found a prehistoric enclosure on top of a hill. In it lay an unusual circular object along with a cache of bronze axes and swords. In their zeal to dig them out of the cache, the artifacts were damaged. These men tried to sell their loot on the international market in hopes of snagging the highest payout. Fortunately, German law considers relics state 
property. The looters were caught in a sting operation in Switzerland when an archaeologist posed as a private collector.
The site in the forest underwent legitimate inventory and is considered one of the most significant and exciting archaeological sites in Europe. What did they find? A 3,600 year-old sky disc — the oldest visual representation of the cosmos known to date. This complex astronomical clock from the Bronze Age is now called the Sky Disc of Nebra, and it just happened to be found near the Goseck Circle, Europe’s oldest observatory.
Here’s how it reads:
I can’t possibly explain the story better than these BBC broadcasts and the links that follow. Let’s just say wow.
Part 1
Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAyUpT9nhLQ
Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My_DMV5jMnk
More~
The early Bronze Age explained at the German State Museum
Is it legit? Science tests the metal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjWGkgQcq_o
Very interesting
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2004/stardisctrans.shtml
Other interpretations
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6722953.stm
In 2013, Germany submitted the Nebra Sky Disk for inclusion in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register .
Tomorrow ~ letter O
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Last day for wild foods recipes on my satellite blog!
Visit all the participants and win prizes too.
http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/
The Authors in Bloom event highlights those things authors do outside the fiction. We garden, we cook, we craft etc. One of the more unusual things my husband and I have done was lead wild foods programs for Chicago’s Field Museum. For this event I’ll be sharing my recipes. Do stop by. You may have delicious ingredients waiting in your backyard!
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See what’s happening on the RB4U blog today
http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/
Our April contest is on. We’ll have 3 winners and a lot of prizes to split among them. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/
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Love Waits in Unexpected Places –
Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971
Download your copy of my free chapter sampler!
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calliopeswritingtablet.wordpress.com 
Wow is right, Rose! I’m so excited about this discovery. Hadn’t heard about it, but it really rings my bell. Thanks for sharing the Nebra sky disk.
Loved seeing the Nebra sky disk. It’s sad when people are so greedy they’ll destroy our past to make a buck. Many years ago, I thought I would like to be and archeologist. It’s like discovering the answer to a mystery. Smile!
That was on my list too! Yes, you’re so right about the greed. It makes me wonder how much sits in private collections unknown to the world.
The Nebra disk is truly amazing. I wonder if we will discover that scientific study is even older. To think that the people who lived in Germany at that time were considered primitive.