The Únětice Culture & the Nebra Sky Disc

Almost 1,500 years before the first Germanic peoples entered Roman history books, a highly developed Early Bronze Age culture flourished in the heart of Central Europe – with long-distance trade, a wealthy elite, and perhaps the most famous archaeological find in Germany: the Nebra Sky Disc.

The Únětice (Aunjetitz) culture (named after Únětice near Prague) existed roughly from 2300 to 1600 BC. It spread across much of Central Europe – today’s Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Bohemia and Moravia, Poland, and parts of Bavaria and Austria. Central Germany in particular was a heartland.

Central Germany as a Heartland

This region holds some of the most important sites of the European Bronze Age: the princely grave of Leubingen, the ring sanctuary of Pömmelte (often called the „German Stonehenge") – and, of course, the find-spot of the Sky Disc near Nebra. It is a landscape where, some 4,000 years ago, power, trade and star-lore came together.

The Nebra Sky Disc

The Nebra Sky Disc – a bronze disc with gold inlays for the sun or full moon, a crescent and stars (including the Pleiades) – counts as one of the oldest concrete depictions of the heavens in the world. It is linked to the late Únětice culture and was probably deposited around 1600 BC. It shows that these people observed the sky systematically, likely to reconcile the solar and lunar year.

Elite, Trade and Metal

Typical of the Únětice culture are early bronze-working, richly furnished barrow and flat graves, long-distance trade in metals and jewellery, and clear social hierarchies with a wealthy elite. Bronze axes and daggers, gold ornaments and lavish grave goods speak of wealth – and of networks spanning half of Europe (the tin for the bronze came from far away).

Who Were These People?

Physically, the bearers of the Únětice culture – like the earlier Corded Ware people – did not differ substantially from today’s Central European population. Some linguists assume they spoke Indo-European dialects. The Indo-Europeanist Wolfram Euler holds the (disputed) view that the southern group spoke early forms of Celtic, the northern early forms of Germanic – a fascinating bridge to the later peoples.

The End

After 1600 BC the Tumulus culture succeeded the Únětice culture. Its technologies, weapon forms and trade routes lived on in the following cultures. The Únětice culture thus marks the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age in Central Europe – a real new beginning.